GENEVA — FIFA judges imposed life bans on two former soccer federation presidents for financial misconduct, including one who stayed in office since being sanctioned in 2011 as part of a notorious election bribery scandal in the Caribbean. Montserrat’s long-time soccer leader Vincent Cassell was charged with “abuse of position, systemic conflicts of interest” and misuse of FIFA and federation funds, FIFA said in a statement on Friday. The former president of the Maldives soccer federation, Bassam Adeel Jaleel, was expelled from the sport for “misusing FIFA COVID-19 Relief Plan funds for his personal benefit,” FIFA said. During the pandemic in 2020 FIFA said it would make up to $1.5 billion available in grants and loans. FIFA funds embezzled ‘to buy apartments’ Maldives media reported this year that Jaleel was sentenced to 23 years in prison for embezzling US$1.2 million from FIFA. The money was intended for local soccer clubs and was reportedly used to buy apartments. Cassell and his federation’s long-time general secretary, Tandica Hughes, pleaded guilty in a Montserrat court in April to tax evasion charges. Both men also were prosecuted in 2011 by FIFA’s then-ethics committee in connection with Caribbean soccer officials taking $40,000 cash payments linked to Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar during his failed campaign to challenge Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency. Cassell and Hughes continued to run the Montserrat soccer body, which is currently entitled to get at least $2 million each year from FIFA’s World Cup profits. FIFA installed an emergency management team last February this year after they left. The decision to oversee Montserrat’s day-to-day management was due to “exceptional crisis and institutional paralysis,” FIFA cited in February. Hughes was banned by FIFA judges for 15 years for “benefiting from and facilitating improper transactions,” abuse of position and misuse of funds. FIFA imposes $1.2 million fines Cassell also faced FIFA charges of “conduct affecting the physical and mental integrity of (federation) staff members,” and was fined 1 million Swiss francs (US$1.23 million). It is unclear what authority FIFA has to get the money. Hughes was ordered to pay 150,000 Swiss francs (US$184,000), FIFA said. Jaleel from the Maldives also was ordered by FIFA to pay 1 million Swiss francs. His verdict was announced more than two years after he was provisionally suspended from soccer by FIFA. The Maldives federation’s former finance director, Mohamed Ageel, was banned from soccer for 10 years and fined 100,000 Swiss francs (US$184,000). FIFA said Ageel’s charges related to “facilitating and concealing misuse of FIFA funds, using falsified documentation and failing to cooperate” with the ethics investigation. FIFA president Gianni Infantino visited the Maldives last year and acknowledged in a news release “the challenges that football in the Maldives has faced in recent years.” Infantino’s message to corrupt officials Both Cassell and Jaleel, who was elected like Infantino in 2016, were presidents of their federations the next year during the FIFA congress in Bahrain. Infantino told his audience in a keynote speech in Manama, “We don’t want you,” if they were corrupt. “If there’s anyone in this room or outside of this room who still thinks he can enrich himself,” Infantino said in 2017, “that he can abuse football, I have one clear and strong message to tell him: Leave football and leave football now.” ___ Graham Dunbar, The Associated Press
