LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND // Mohamed Bin Hammam has failed in his bid to be reinstated as head of Asian football by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), according to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
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[ The National's coverage of the Fifa bribery case. ]
The Qatari, 62, is serving a lifetime ban from football after being accused by Fifa of bribery during his failed bid to become the world governing body's president in May.
As the most senior AFC member, the Chinese Zhang Jilong assumed the roles of acting head and Fifa executive committee member after the ban.
"AFC has strictly followed the AFC Statutes at all times in relation to Mr Jilong's designation as AFC Acting President and nomination to the Fifa Executive Committee," the statement read today.
The AFC said they welcomed the decision by CAS to reject the appeal to have Zhang removed.
"Hence, AFC welcomes the CAS decision on provisional measures and is confident of its prospects of success at the CAS hearing on the merits of the appeal."
Bin Hammam was attempting to overturn that decision and be reinstated to both roles in the interim ahead of his CAS hearing into the Fifa ban and the AFC decision.
Bin Hammam had ran against Sepp Blatter, the present Fifa president, but withdrew from the race on May 29 after being accused of handing US$40,000 (Dh147,000) bribes in brown envelopes as a sweetener to Caribbean officials to secure their vote.
Blatter was re-elected unopposed for a fourth term three days later.
Bin Hammam, who was re-elected unopposed for a third and final term as the AFC president in January, has continually said he was innocent and is taking his case to CAS after having his appeal against the decision rejected by Fifa last month.
The Qatari has been heavily critical of Fifa since the decision in May.
He has appeared to flout Fifa rules on the ban from all football by using AFC headed paper and referred to himself as the AFC president when making public a number of statements on his blog.
