[4] Bin Hammam challenged this sanction in the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the ban was subsequently annulled on 19 July 2012 due to lack of sufficient evidence.

[5] However, just 5 months later in December 2012, FIFA handed bin Hammam a second life ban from football after "conflicts of interest" were identified in his role as president of the AFC.

[7] As well as being the president of the Asian Football Confederation, he was also the chairman of the Fifa Goal Bureau, whose grants provide financial support for member associations across the world.

[11] As a result of the investigations preliminary findings, Bin Hammam was charged with offering bribes for votes and appeared before FIFA's ethics committee on 29 May.

Bin Hammam withdrew from the presidential race the day before the ethics committee meeting, leaving Blatter to run unopposed.

[12] On 29 May 2011, FIFA's ethics committee suspended Bin Hammam and Jack Warner temporarily from all football-related activity pending the outcome of a full inquiry into accusations that they offered financial incentives to members of the Caribbean Football Union.

[13] Bin Hammam said that he would appeal against the committee's decision to provisionally ban him from football related activity, saying that "The way these proceedings have been conducted is not compliant with any principles of justice.

[15] On 23 July 2011, Bin Hammam was banned for life from all football activities by a five-member panel of the FIFA Ethics committee chaired by Petrus Damaseb.

The committee found that his actions violated the organization' ethics rules after studying the reports of investigators and hearing the testimony of witnesses from the May 2011 meeting who were not available for cross examination by Bin Hammam's legal representatives.

[5][19] In December 2012, FIFA issued bin Hammam a second life ban from football after "conflicts of interest" were identified during his presidency of the AFC.