Aug 19 (Reuters) - The Asian Football Confederation (AFC)
have extended the provisional suspension of their former
president Mohamed bin Hammam by 20 days, the governing body said
on Sunday, as investigations into allegations of financial
wrongdoing continue.
The Qatari had been initially suspended for 30 days but
chairman of the AFC Disciplinary Committee, Lim Kia Tong,
extended that on Wednesday, a day before the ban was due to
expire, a statement from the AFC said.
Bin Hammam is also facing a new investigation by soccer's
world governing body FIFA, who handed the Qatari a lifetime ban
for bribery only to see that ruling overturned by sport's
highest court CAS last month.
Bin Hammam has denied both charges levelled against him and
said on Tuesday he would shortly announce further steps to
challenge 'this clear abuse of power and process at the hand of
FIFA'..
The 63-year-old Qatari was voted in for a third and final
four year term as the head of Asian soccer in January last year
before revealing a manifesto to challenge for the FIFA
presidency against incumbent Sepp Blatter months later.
But Bin Hammam withdrew his candidacy and was then
provisionally suspended, days before the June election over
allegations that he had tried to buy the votes of Caribbean
officials by handing them $40,000 each in brown envelopes at a
meeting in Port of Spain.
Blatter was subsequently re-elected unopposed for a fourth
term as FIFA president, while Bin Hammam was found guilty of
breaking FIFA's ethics code, including one on bribery, and has
been fighting the charges ever since.
(Reporting by Patrick Johnston in Singapore; Editing by Sudipto
Ganguly)