ZURICH — Two former national soccer federation presidents were banned from the sport for life Friday. FIFA’s independent Ethics Committee expelled Vincent Cassell, who ran soccer in Montserrat for nearly 30 years, and Bassam Adeel Jaleel, the former president of the Football Association of Maldives, according to The Associated Press. Two other officials drew bans of 15 years and 10 years.
The four sanctions carried a combined 2.25 million Swiss francs in fines. AP reported that it is unclear what authority FIFA has to collect any of the money.
Vincent Cassell And The Montserrat Federation
The Ethics Committee fined Cassell 1 million Swiss francs, about $1.23 million. The charges covered abuse of position, systemic conflicts of interest, and misuse of FIFA and federation money. He faced a separate charge over his treatment of federation staff members.
Longtime Montserrat Football Association general secretary Tandica Hughes was banned for 15 years and ordered to pay 150,000 Swiss francs, about $184,000. His charges covered benefiting from and facilitating improper transactions, abuse of position, and misuse of funds.
On April 14, Cassell and Hughes pleaded guilty to tax charges in the High Court of Montserrat. The pleas came at the start of what had been scheduled as a five-day trial for conspiracy to cheat the inland revenue, according to Foundry Chambers, whose Richard Jory KC prosecuted on instruction from Montserrat director of public prosecutions Oris Sullivan. Cassell had stepped down in December 2025 after nearly 30 years in the post, citing health and personal reasons.
On Jan. 31, the Bureau of the FIFA Council appointed a normalisation committee to run the Montserrat federation. The Bureau acted under article 8 paragraph 2 of the FIFA Statutes, in consultation with Concacaf. FIFA described the association as being in a state of “exceptional crisis and institutional paralysis.” The committee’s mandate runs no later than Jan. 31, 2027. Montserrat’s federation is entitled to at least $2 million a year from FIFA’s World Cup profits.
Both men were sanctioned in 2011 by FIFA’s then-ethics committee, in the case involving $40,000 cash payments to Caribbean officials tied to Mohamed bin Hammam’s campaign against Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency.
Bassam Adeel Jaleel And The Maldives Case
Jaleel was expelled for using FIFA Covid-19 Relief Plan money for his personal benefit and ordered to pay 1 million Swiss francs. FIFA made up to $1.5 billion available in grants and loans under that plan in 2020.
On Oct. 22, 2023, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Maldives searched FAM House. The investigation covered money laundering, embezzlement, corruption, and other offenses involving the use of FIFA funds by federation officials.
FIFA provisionally suspended Jaleel for nine months on June 20, 2024. Formal proceedings followed under articles 14, 20, 21, and 29 of the FIFA Code of Ethics. Those articles cover general duties, conflicts of interest, gifts and other benefits, and misappropriation and misuse of funds.
Maldives media reported this year that Jaleel was sentenced to 23 years in prison. He was convicted of embezzling $1.2 million intended for local clubs, and those reports said the money went to buy apartments.
Former Maldives federation finance director Mohamed Ageel was banned for 10 years and fined 100,000 Swiss francs. His charges covered facilitating and concealing misuse of FIFA funds, using falsified documentation, and failing to cooperate with the ethics investigation.
Gianni Infantino And The UEFA Complaint
FIFA president Gianni Infantino, elected in 2016, told the FIFA Congress in Manama in 2017 that anyone who believed he could enrich himself should “leave football and leave football now.”
On Aug. 1, Infantino withdrew a plan to sell a 20% stake in a FIFA commercial subsidiary to Thrive Capital Management for $4.2 billion. UEFA is now preparing a criminal complaint against him in Swiss courts over that plan, ESPN reported on Aug. 27.
