Former Asian Football Confederation (AFC) head Mohamed Bin Hammam was banned for life by FIFA's ethics committee on Saturday after being found guilty of attempting to bribe officials in his bid to become FIFA president EARLY DAYS * Born May 8, 1949, in Doha, Qatar. * A former chairman of top Qatari side Al Rayyan Sports Club, he took over as president of the Qatar Football Association in 1992 and served for four years. * He won West Asia's seat on the FIFA executive committee in 1996 and was appointed member of Qatar's parliament by the country's Emir soon after. AFC PRESIDENT * He was elected AFC president in 2002 and played an instrumental role in Sepp Blatter's election campaigns for FIFA president. * Widely considered a reformer of the Asian game, Bin Hammam has been credited with raising standards by attracting commercial investment, introducing numerous national development programmes and bringing Australia into the Asian confederation. * His staunchest critics, however, have accused him of being a dictator who has divided the AFC's 46 member countries. * In 2009 he survived a challenge for his FIFA executive committee seat from Bahrain's Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa by the narrowest of margins after a hardfought campaign where his mental health was questioned by former FIFA vice-president Chung Mong-joon. AMBITION * Despite his charisma, Bin Hammam is famous for his controversial words and in 2009 he said he would “cut off the head” of a rival he claimed was trying to engineer his downfall, a comment he later explained was a “misinterpreted” Arab metaphor. * High on ambition, he once said top European clubs would have to compete with Asian sides in future to sign big-name players and has continuely pushed his AFC motto: ‘the future is Asia'. * In December, Qatar were surprise winners of the hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup and although Bin Hammam was not a member of the bid team, many observers acknowledged his influence in the FIFA executive committee had helped to sway key votes. * In January he was sworn in for a third and final four-year term as AFC head. However, after reconciling with Chung, he was unable to help his preferred candidate retain his FIFA vice-president seat at the Congress as Prince Ali of Jordan was nominated ahead of the South Korean. * In March, after dropping hints for months, he announced his intention to run for FIFA president and unveiled a manifesto built on transparency and technology. * On Thursday, May 26, 2011, less than a week before the FIFA presidency vote, he was accused of bribery at a meeting of the Caribbean Football Union on May 10-11 in Port of Spain, Trinidad by his fellow FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer. He withdrew his nomination for the presidency two days later. * The following day he was provisionally suspended from all FIFA and football related activities on corruption charges and duly replaced as AFC president by temporary president Zhang Jilong of China. * He was banned for life on Saturday following a two-day hearing by FIFA's ethics committee, who found him guilty of trying to buy votes ahead of the presidential election.
