Fifa ban Temarii for eight years over Bin Hammam bribe

The Tahiti FA boss was found to have received over €300,000 to cover his legal costs after a previous Fifa suspension.

Fifa has banned Tahiti FA boss Reynald Temarii from all football activity for eight years after he was found to have accepted a €300,000 bribe from disgraced former AFC chief Mohamed bin Hammam.

Temarii had previously been banned for one year in 2010 for taking bribes for World Cup votes in the bid process which resulted in South Africa hosting that year’s tournament, and as a result was prohibited from taking part in the 2018 and 2022 ballots.

However, he has now received a further ban which rules him out of all forms of the game until May 13, 2023 after being found to have accepted €305,630 from Bin Hammam to cover the costs of his legal expenses as he appealed his original Fifa suspension.
A Fifa statement explained:

“The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Fifa Ethics Committee, chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert, has decided to ban Reynald Temarii, General Director of the Tahiti Football Association, from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national and international level for a period of eight years. The decision was taken following a hearing in the presence of the accused and the chairman of the investigatory chamber of the Fifa Ethics Committee, Dr Cornel Borbely.”


It went on to reveal that Temarii received the money from Bin Hammamin in January 2011, two months after he had met with the former Fifa Executive Committee member in Kuala Lumpur.

The world governing body’s Ethics Committee continues to investigate former US attorney Michael Garcia’s wide-ranging anti-corruption report looking into the conduct of a number of senior officials across the football world during the 2018 and 2022 bid processes.

Temarii is the first major figure to have been punished as a result of the findings.

The full extent of Garcia's report is set to be revealed in the near future after its original, edited version was criticised by the American himself for its inaccuracy.