FIFA’S disgraced former vice-president Reynald Temarii of Tahiti has been charged with corruption by French prosecutors probing Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid process.

        The charge, the first to emerge from the years-long investigation, is for passive corruption and was confirmed by France’s financial crimes prosecutors (PNF). Temarii is a former president of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC).

        But he was forced out in 2010 after being implicated in a vote-selling scandal during an undercover newspaper sting before the controversial awarding to Qatar of last year’s football showpiece.

       Temarii was banned for a year by FIFA on 17 November 2010, ruling him out of the infamous 2 December vote at FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich.

        The OFC were entitled to organize someone to vote in his place, with the first of their votes designated for Australia then if necessary to the United States, the favorites for the 2022 staging rights over Qatar.

        But Temarii appealed his ban on the night of 30 November, having initially accepted his suspension. His appeal, as per FIFA rules, deprived the OFC of a vote on 2 December, with Qatar eventually winning the ballot over the USA 14-8.

— AFP