A key figure in Qatar's successful bid for the 2022 World Cup has been banned from all football activities for a year by FIFA.
Saoud Al-Mohannadi, vice-president of the Qatar Football Association, was given the sanction by FIFA's ethics committee for failing to cooperate with an investigation into a third party.
Proceedings against Al-Mohannadi, who became a vice-president of the powerful Asian Football Confederation in September, was opened in July and two months later ethics investigators recommended that he be given a two-and-a-half-year ban.
The ethics committee's adjudicatory chamber, chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert, has opted for the more lenient sentence of a year and a £16,000 fine but this still represents a major embarrassment for Qatar.
Al-Mohannadi was the QFA's general secretary when it won the FIFA vote in 2010 and he had hoped to represent Qatar's interests on the new FIFA Council as preparations for 2022 proceed.
It is not clear why he has refused to cooperate with the separate investigation, or who is under investigation, but in September he told local media he was confident he would be cleared of any wrongdoing.
Source: PA
