Independent Ethics Committee suspends Worawi Makudi from all footballing

He was found guilty in July by a Thai court of forgery in his re-election as head of the FAT in 2013.

“The case is now the subject of formal investigation proceedings”.

Maukudi was on the Executive Committee in December 2010 when it voted to award the 2018 World Cup to Russian Federation and the 2022 tournament to Qatar. “I am not guilty of anything”. “I will have the legal team send a petition to Federation Internationale de Football Association immediately under my rights”.

His ban follows matching suspensions handed out to embattled outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter and European football boss Michel Platini last Thursday.

Hayatou is expected in Zurich after completing business this week with the Confederation of African Football (CAF), where he is president.

Swiss prosecutors opened criminal proceedings against Blatter on September 25 on suspicion of “criminal mismanagement” as well as on suspicion of “misappropriation of funds”. This payment, “at the expense of FIFA”, was allegedly for work performed between January 1999 and June 2002.

The 79-year-old, who was due to stand aside from the organisation he has run since 1998 in February, is appealing his suspension.

According to sources with knowledge of the payment, Platini and Blatter are understood to have told investigators the money was paid owing to an agreement they made orally when Platini worked as Blatter’s adviser at Federation Internationale de Football Association, between 1998 and 2002.

He also said that the Saturday election should not be postponed because Fifa’s decision only concerned Mr Worawi.

Just days after the FIFA president was banned, another top official of the global football governing body was suspended for 90 days Monday on grounds of breaching the ethical code.

And a few reports suggest one topic on the menu will be the delaying of the February 26 election to find Blatter’s replacement, following Platini’s ban and the six-year suspension meted out to another potential presidential candidate, South Korea’s Chung Mong-joon. This decision against Worawi Makudi followed a request from the chairman of the investigatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee, Dr Cornel Borbely.