FIFA Bans Former South Sudan FA President

The former South Sudan football president Chabur Goc Alei has been banned for 10 years for misappropriation of funds and bribery by FIFA’s ethics committee.

Goc Alei, who headed the South Sudan Football Association (Safa) from 2012- 2016, is also under investigation after being accused of embezzling millions of dollars of football development money.

Alei was found by FIFA’s ethics committee to have “misappropriated FIFA Financial Assistance Programme and FIFA Goal Programme funds received by SSFA during the 2014 and 2015 period, and to payments made to football officials and other individuals.”

The football governing body confirmed that Alei had breached Article 28 (Misappropriation of funds) and Article 20 (Offering and accepting gifts or other benefits) of the 2018 edition of the FIFA Code of Ethics, which resulted in their decision to suspend him from all national and international football matters for a decade.

The South Sudan government is investigating Alei after he was accused of embezzling around $4m million during his six years tenure- much of it was money from FIFA and CAF earmarked for football development projects.

Alei resigned as South Sudan football boss on Wednesday, November 30, 2016 after he was suspended by FA’s executive committee for financial impropriety.

The board accused him of among others, “taking decisions on financial expenditures of the Association alone without the knowledge of Members of Board of Directors and members of finance committee’, including the transfer of $400,000 to his personal account between 11th and 19th March 2015, and single-handedly borrowing $12,000.