Tuesday 29 September 2015 16:52, UK
Disgraced former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has been banned for life from any kind of football-related activity.
The former CONCACAF president has been punished for misconduct, following an investigation into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Warner, who has been embroiled in a series of scandals and currently fighting extradition to the USA on charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering, hit back on Tuesday,claiming there is no coincidence that his suspension had been announced at the same time that Sepp Blatter was engulfed in controversy.
Warner left FIFA in 2011 after being implicated in an earlier bribery scandal, although he has denied wrongdoing and FIFA said at the time that the "presumption of innocence is maintained".
But on Tuesday, he was banned "from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national and international level for life" by the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's Ethics Committee, chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert.
The life ban is something of a symbolic gesture, because there appeared to be little prospect of Warner returning to football.
But FIFA has also released a strongly-worded statement which read in part: "Mr Warner was found to have committed many and various acts of misconduct continuously and repeatedly during his time as an official in different high-ranking and influential positions at FIFA and CONCACAF.
"In his positions as a football official, he was a key player in schemes involving the offer, acceptance, and receipt of undisclosed and illegal payments, as well as other money-making schemes.
"He was found guilty of violations of art. 13 (General rules of conduct), art. 15 (Loyalty), art. 18 (Duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting), art. 19 (Conflicts of interest), art. 20 (Offering and accepting gifts and other benefits) and art. 41 (Obligation of the parties to collaborate) of the FIFA code of ethics."
Warner has responded strongly to the ban and said in an email: "I left FIFA in April 2011 and if, in September 2015, FIFA wants to ban me for life without even a hearing, then so be it.
"I do not believe, however, that this will serve as the distraction to FIFA's present problems, (that) FIFA wishes it to be.
"Given what is happening in Zurich with (Sepp) Blatter (FIFA president), I wish to say that there is no such thing as coincidence."
