FIFA chamber recommends lifetime soccer ban for ex-VP Hawit

ZURICH (Reuters) – The FIFA Ethics Committee’s investigatory chamber on Friday called for former Honduran soccer head Alfredo Hawit Banegas to be banned from soccer for life for allegedly taking illegal payments from sports marketing firms.

Hawit, a former FIFA vice president and general secretary of the Honduran Football Association, in April pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court in New York to bribery schemes uncovered in a U.S. investigation of corruption within the world soccer body.

In a statement Friday, the investigatory chamber said Hawit deserved a lifetime ban for allegedly violating FIFA’s general rules of conduct as well as prohibitions on bribery and corruption.

The case now goes to the Ethics Committee’s adjudicatory chamber.

(Reporting by John Miller)