The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee has found Mohammad Hanif Sediqi Rustam, former assistant to Keramuudin Karim, former President of the Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF), guilty of various violations of the FIFA Code of Ethics.

The investigation into Mr Sediqi Rustam concerned the complaints lodged by several Afghan female football players, accusing Mr Karim of repeated sexual abuse in the 2013-2018 period, at a time when Mr Sediqi Rustam was working at the AFF as a secretary to Mr Karim.

In its decision, the adjudicatory chamber established that Mr Sediqi Rustam was aware of such abuse and had the duty to report and prevent such abuse according to the FIFA Code of Ethics.

Consequently, the adjudicatory chamber found that Mr Sediqi Rustam had breached art. 17 (Duty to report) and art. 23 (Protection of physical and mental integrity) of the FIFA Code of Ethics, 2019 edition, and sanctioned him with a ban from all football-related activity (administrative, sports or any other) at both national and international level for a duration of five years. In addition, a fine in the amount of CHF 10,000 has been imposed on Mr Sediqi Rustam.

The terms of the decision were notified to Mr Sediqi Rustam today, the date on which the ban comes into force. According to art. 78 par. 2 of the FIFA Code of Ethics, the full motivated decision will be notified to Mr Sediqi Rustam in the next 60 days, and published thereafter on legal.fifa.com.