Paris - Arabstoday
Mohamed Bin Hammam Former Fifa presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam's lifetime ban for bribery has been annulled by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Bin Hammam was accused of attempting
to buy votes ahead of last year's Fifa presidential election.
Fifa later banned him from being involved "in any kind of football-related activity at national and international level for life".
But Cas said there was unsufficient evidence to support the ban.
However the body stressed that its decision did not make any sort of "affirmative finding of innocent in relation to Mr Bin Hammam".
"The panel is doing no more than concluding that the evidence is insufficient in that it does not permit the majority of the panel to reach the standard of comfortable satisfaction in relation to the matters on which the Appellant was charged," the report said.
Bin Hammam, 62, along with former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner, was suspended after a leaked report revealed four Caribbean Football Union (CFU) associations were either offered money, or saw the incident occur, during a meeting last May.
It was alleged that cash-stuffed envelopes containing up to $40,000 (£25,000) were handed to the delegates during the meeting in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
A Fifa report said there was "comprehensive, convincing and overwhelming" proof that bribes had been paid to officials to support Bin Hammam's campaign for the presidency, and that Warner had facilitated this.
Bin Hammam, a former head of the Asian Football Confederation, withdrew from the election, leaving Sepp Blatter to be re-elected unopposed.
Warner later resigned from Fifa so his case did not go before the organisation's ethics committee.
Two further officials from the CFU, Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester, were each banned from football-related activity for a year for their involvement in the bribery attempt.
But Cas, in its report, said: "After thorough deliberations and on the basis of the evidence before it, was unable to conclude to its comfortable satisfaction that the charges against Mr Bin Hammam were established.
"This conclusion should not be taken to diminish the significance of its finding that it is more likely than not that Mr Bin Hammam was the source of the monies that were brought into Trinidad and Tobago and eventually distributed at the meeting by Mr Warner, and that in this way, his conduct, in collaboration with and most likely induced by Mr Warner, may not have complied with the highest ethical standards that should govern the world of football and other sports.
"The panel therefore wishes to make clear that in applying the law, as it is required to do under the CAS Code, it is not making any sort of affirmative finding of innocence in relation to Mr Bin Hammam.
"It is a situation of "case not proven", coupled with concern on the part of the panel that the FIFA investigation was not complete or comprehensive enough to fill the gaps in the record."