FIFA corruption scandal: Thailand FA president Worawi Makudi suspended

The FIFA corruption scandal continues to claim more victims, with current Thailand FA president and former FIFA executive committee member Worawi Makudi the latest to be suspended.

FIFA’s ethics committee suspended Makudi for 90 days as investigations proceed over a possible breach of the FIFA Code of Ethics. Although details were not fully revealed, it is reported that Makudi’s conduct during the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups is the main reason for the suspension.

This is not the first time that Morawi has come under scrutiny, with a Thai court handing him a suspended sentence of 16 months in prison in July, for forgery during the 2013 Thai FA elections, which he won.

“The adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee, chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert, has suspended Worawi Makudi, the President of The Football Association of Thailand and a former member of the FIFA Executive Committee, from all football activities at national and international level for 90 days. The ban is effective immediately. The decision was taken pursuant to the FIFA Code of Ethics art. 83 par. 1, on the grounds that a breach of the Code of Ethics appears to have been committed and a decision on the main issue may not be taken early enough,” FIFA said in a statement released on its website.

Earlier this month, FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA president Michel Platini were implicated in the scandal and suspended from all football activities for 90 days by the FIFA ethics committee. Blatter is accused of signing a TV rights deal for the 2006 and 2010 World Cups with former FIFA official Jack Warner, which caused financial losses to the world football’s governing body.

Platini was suspended after Swiss authorities claimed to have found evidence that he received a ‘disloyalty payment’ from Blatter in 2011 worth around €2 million (AU $3.15 million), which the two claim was for work done by the former between 1999 and 2002, but which many view as a bribe Platini received to not stand against Blatter in the 2011 FIFA presidential elections.

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