Banned BFF GS to go to CAS

General Secretary of the Bangladesh Football Federation, Abu Nayeem Shohag, was banned from all football activities for the next two years by FIFA and he wants to head to the Court of Arbitration of Sports, as per BFF President Kazi Salahuddin.

Shohag was banned for two years and fined 10,000 Swiss Francs for having used false and/or falsified documents to justify payments made by the BFF with FIFA funds. FIFA stated that Shohag has been found guilty of breaching three articles of the FIFA Code of Ethics – 13 (General duties), 15 (Duty of loyalty) and 24 (Forgery and falsification).

Alongside their statement of the ban on the BFF General Secretary, FIFA also revealed a 51-page document, a detailed description of the investigation titled, ‘Decision of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the Ethics Committee’.

That document provided details of the investigation into Shohag and the results.

The main discrepancy that Shohag has been accused of is the breach of article 24 – forgery and falsification. Regarding that, FIFA revealed four problematic transactions, in which the BFF General Secretary was involved.

However, Shohag believes that the verdict is unjust and will be heading to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to appeal the sentence.

“I talked to Shohag regarding the decision of the FIFA Ethics Committee last night. He told me that this decision was doing injustice to him and he will go to the Court of Arbitration for Sports regarding this,” the BFF President said on Saturday.

However, there were other questions from FIFA in that document as they had found other troublesome issues with BFF’s finances, especially with FIFA forward funds, although Shohag was not punished regarding those.

‘For example, in the 2016 Central review, it was noted that out of USD 708,820 received as FIFA Forward funds, only USD 90,014 were paid directly from the dedicated bank account, meaning that only 12,69% of the transactions were made correctly,’ the statement read on page 12.

‘Subsidies were given to Bangladeshi football clubs totalling USD 124,535, an amount that is not foreseen in the Forward regulations and was not agreed upon with FIFA. Moreover, no supporting documentation was available to substantiate these disbursements, out of which USD 53,588 was paid in cash,’ it read on the next page.

Other than that, there were other questions regarding the travel costs of the Women’s National Team and the payment of the National Team head coach and Technical Director, alongside using FIFA forward funds for programs and tournaments not authorised by FIFA, which Shohag claimed that had to be done as they did not ‘receive funds timely’ from sponsors.

However, although there are financial implications, Salahuddin said it was strictly ethical and the BFF would let everyone know their decision very soon.

“They did not say it was financial discrepancy. They talked about code of ethics and responsibility. Anyway, there is nothing to hide here. But before saying anything, we need to make a decision meeting with everybody. I will let everybody know the decision,” the BFF president said.