FIFA’s Independent Ethics Committee provisionally bans three officials as crisis continues

CONCACAF general secretary Enrique Sanz is one of three officials banned by FIFA's Ethics Committee ©AFP/Getty Images

Three officials, including Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) general secretary Enrique Sanz, have been provisionally banned from carrying out any football-related activities by FIFA’s Independent Ethics Committee.

The Colombian-American has been banned, along with Jean Guy Blaise Mayolas and Badji Mombo Wantete, vice-president and general secretary of Congolese Football Association (FECOFOOT) respectively, at the request of Dr Cornel Borbély, chairman of the Ethics Committee’s Investigatory Chamber.

A FIFA statement announcing the decision claimed Mayolas and Wantete appear to have committed “various breaches of the FIFA Code of Ethics".

Sanz’s ban follows an investigation by the Ethics Committee and the latest facts presented by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

The US-led investigation into football’s governing body has already led to the charging of nine FIFA officials and five other executives, including CONCACAF President Jack Warner, for racketeering, conspiracy and corruption ahead of last week’s FIFA Congress in Zurich.

The indictment has caused widespread embarrassment and criticism of the world governing body.

Danny Jordaan, President of the South African Football Association (SAFA) and former chief executive of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, has already confirmed that a $10 million (£6 million/€9 million) payment referred to in the US Department of Justice (DoJ) indictment had been made.

The banning of the three officials continues the crisis at FIFA, which began with last week's arrests of several major officials in the governing body ©Getty Images

In the aftermath of the latest crisis to hit the governing body, several members of FIFA’s Commissions and Committees have announced their resignation in protest, with Heather Rabbatts, an English Football Association Board member and chair of their Inclusion Advisory Board, among the latest to leave.

Rabbatts announced her departure from FIFA’s Task Force Against Racism and Discrimination, claiming recent events had had a “disastrous effect on FIFA's reputation".

“Like many in the game, I find it unacceptable that so little has been done to reform FIFA,” Rabbatts said.

"It is clear from the re-election of President Blatter that the challenges facing FIFA and the ongoing damage to the reputation of football's world governing body are bound to continue to overshadow and undermine the credibility of any work in the anti-racism arena and beyond.”

Blatter saw off the challenge of Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan by 133 votes to 73 to remain in the post he has held since 1998, but the beginning of his fifth term as President has been met with animosity.

Rabbatts’s resignation follows the decision of the English FA vice chairman David Gill, who was elected as a FIFA’s vice -president on Friday (May 29), to immediately stand down from the role after Blatter’s fifth term as President was confirmed.

Heather Rabbatts has announced her departure from FIFA, stating recent events had had a “disastrous effect on FIFA's reputation.” ©Getty Images

The fallout from the election and indictment of senior football figures has continued with New Zealand barrister Nicholas Davidson announcing he will be quitting FIFA’s Ethics Committee.

Davidson, a member of the six-member Investigatory Chamber since 2013, welcomed the investigations into corruption allegations against the governing body.

"I want to then emphasise the immense significance of the criminal processes being engaged in the US and Switzerland,” Davidson told the New Zealand Herald.

“Out of them will come evidence which will found the FIFA investigations."

He also admitted being “very frustrated” that he was unable to have access to Michael Garcia’s report into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process, which having been blocked from being published led to Garcia’s own resignation in December 2014.

In addition to the US-led inquiry into corruption, Swiss authorities are examining the 2018 and 2022 World Cup voting process in a separate investigation.

Brazilian police are also set to examine allegations of corruption at the 2014 World Cup, after their Senate, led by World Cup winner turned senator Romario, opened a formal inquiry.