Former FIFA official's ban for corruption cut to 15 years

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) - Former FIFA Council member Kwesi Nyantakyi had his life ban for financial corruption cut to 15 years on appeal, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said Friday.

A FIFA-imposed fine of 500,000 Swiss francs ($548,000) was also cut to 100,000 Swiss francs ($110,000), the court said in a statement. The judging panel's detailed verdict was not published.

Nyantakyi had been filmed by a television program in his native Ghana accepting $65,000 in cash from undercover reporters posing as businessmen seeking favors.

He claimed on film to have influence with the president of Ghana and other top politicians.

Days before the 2018 World Cup opened, Nyantakyi resigned as the senior vice president of the Confederation of African Football and as president of the Ghanaian soccer federation.

The case removed him as one of African soccer's elected delegates to the FIFA Council, the governing body's ruling committee which he joined in 2016. That position paid him an annual $250,000 stipend.

The FIFA ethics committee found him guilty in October 2018 of bribery, corruption and conflict of interest.

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