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Adamu and Temarii banned and fined by FIFA

The two FIFA Executive Committee members alleged to have offered to sell their votes in the bidding process to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were yesterday banned and fined by world football’s governing body.

Nigerian Amos Adamu was banned from all-soccer related activities for three years and fined 10,000 Swiss francs (£6,331) for breaches of five articles of FIFA's ethics code, including one on bribery.

Reynald Temarii of Tahiti, president of the Oceania Football Confederation, was banned for one year and fined 5,000 Swiss francs for breaching articles on general conduct and loyalty.

Four other officials, including Slim Aloulou, chairman of the committee that settles disputes between clubs, players and coaches, were also banned and fined. The 2018 Spain-Portugal and 2022 Qatar bids were cleared of collusion.

"For as long as I am in the ethics committee, we will have a zero tolerance policy for all violations of standards," said FIFA ethics committee chairman Claudio Sulser after a three-day hearing. "We don't want cheaters, we don't want doping, we don't want abuses to be accepted."

The decision to ban two executive committee members means only 22, instead of the expected 24, will vote when FIFA chooses the hosts for the two tournaments on December 2 in Zurich.