ZURICH: The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee chaired by Hans‑Joachim Eckert has banned Mr Ganesh Thapa, President of the All-Nepal Football Association, for ten years and Mr Viphet Sihachakr, President of the Laos Football Federation, for two years, from all football activities at both national and international level. The bans come into force immediately.

The decisions were made based on investigations carried out by the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee under the chairmanship of Dr Cornel Borbély.

Mr Thapa, in the context of the 2009 and 2011 elections for the FIFA Executive Committee at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) congress, committed various acts of misconduct over several years, including the solicitation and acceptance of cash payments from another football official, for both personal and family gain.

Specifically, he was found guilty of infringing article 13 (General rules of conduct), article 15 (Loyalty), article 18 (Duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting), article 19 (Conflicts of interest), article 20 (Offering and accepting gifts and other benefits) and article 21 (Bribery and corruption) of the FIFA Code of Ethics (FCE).

Mr Thapa has therefore been banned for ten years from all football-related activities and fined CHF 20,000.

Mr Sihachakr, in the context of the 2011 elections for the FIFA Executive Committee at the AFC congress, solicited and accepted a payment from another football official which constituted a breach of article 13 (General rules of conduct), article 19 (Conflicts of interest) and article 20 (Offering and accepting gifts and other benefits) of the FCE.

As a consequence, Mr Sihachakr has been banned for two years from all football-related activities and fined CHF 40,000.

The sanctions are effective as of 16 November 2015, the date on which the present decisions were notified. 

For further inquiries:

Marc Tenbücken

Spokesman for the adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee
c/o Hendricks & Schwartz GmbH
Tal 15
D-80331 Munich
Office  +49 89 23685300
Mobile +49 172 8637533
mt@hendricks-schwartz.com

Andreas Bantel

Spokesman for the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee
c/o Bantel & Partner AG
Othmarstrasse 8
CH-8008 Zurich
Office  +41 44 389 17 05
Mobile +41 79 231 56 62
andreas.bantel@bantel.ch

 

Inquiries:
Hans-Joachim Eckert
Chairman of the Adjudicatory Chamber
FIFA Ethics Committee