The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee of FIFA imposed a two-year ban on Abu Nayeem Shohag, General Secretary of Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) and former member of the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber.
Shohag has been issued the ban with bringing the allegation against him of violation of the FIFA Code of Ethics and misuse of FIFA fund and also provided false purchase papers and false document of quotations. Since 2018, FIFA has been auditing and monitoring financial transactions of BFF and all expenditures from FIFA fund.
Shohag, apart from two years ban has also received fine CHF 10,000 or BDT 12,00000 when the FIFA Ethics committee has released a 50-page statement on Friday.
According to the FIFA Ethics Committee Shohag breached articles 13 (General duties), 15 (Duty of loyalty) and 24 (Forgery and falsification) of the FIFA Code of Ethics, 2020 edition. The adjudicatory chamber was satisfied in addition to the evidence collected during the investigations conducted by the investigatory chamber in the applicable proceedings and after having conducted a hearing and upon careful analysis of the evidence presented before it, on that grounds of the decision have been communicated to Shohag– the date on which the above mentioned ban comes into force.
Shohag, who has been working as the general secretary of the BFF since 2013, decided to appeal before the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) against the allegation and ban were brought against him.
Denying all the allegations against him, his legal advisor stated that it appears that the Adjudicatory Chamber simply acted as a stamping house by upholding the decision of the FIFA Investigatory Chamber without applying its mind independently and judiciously.
Therefore, as per the Rules, Mr. Shohag shall appeal the biased and targeted Decision communicated on 14 April 2023 before the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) which is an independent institution, based in Lausanne, Switzerland involved in resolving legal disputes in the field of sport.
The Legal Advisor of Shohag further explained - Denting in addition, the FIFA Adjudicatory Chamber also expressly stated that there is nothing on file suggesting that MrShohag forged or falsified the quotations, but rather that he did not examine the quotations, even then based on pure speculation, by expressly avoiding material evidences, the Adjudicatory Chamber held that false and/or falsified documents were used in the BFF procurement process, which makes it apparent that the Decision is not only erroneous and defective but also targeted and biased towards Bangladesh Football Federation.
Meanwhile, Kazi Mohammed Salahuddin president of the BFF in a press conference on Saturday regarding the situation said, “Some of our vice presidents are out of Dhaka, hopefully they will return today (Saturday), we will have a meeting tomorrow (Sunday) and will take decisions. We would let the media know after discussion the matter with FIFA on Monday and the BFF senior members and two of its vice presidents are currently in abroad.”
“I spoke to Shohag last night about the decision the FIFA’s Ethics Committee made. He told me that he (Shohag) felt that the decision of the Ethics Committee was unfair to him, and told me that he will go to the Court of Arbitration for Sports,”BFF Boss informed.
