Former FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam has lost his appeal against a life ban for his part in a cash-for-votes scandal, one of several recent controversies to hit world football.
A Fifa statement says therefore the ban from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national and international level for life has therefore been maintained.
Former Asian Football Confederation president and FIFA executive committee member Bin Hammam challenged Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency earlier this year.
He withdrew his candidacy, and was then provisionally suspended, days before the June election over allegations that he had tried to buy the votes of Caribbean officials by handing them 50 thousand dollars each in brown envelopes.
Blatter was subsequently re-elected unopposed for a fourth term as FIFA president.
Qatari Bin Hammam was then banned for life by FIFA's ethics committee in July after being found to have broken seven articles of the ethics code, including one on bribery.
Bin Hammam has denied the allegations and has already said he plans to take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
