Last month, it was announced that both Villar Llona, vice-president of FIFA and President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, and German World Cup winner Franz Beckenbauer, faced being banned from football for their refusal to cooperate with the inquiries into the vote that handed the 2018 and 2022 tournaments to Russia and Qatar respectively.  

Villar Llona, who has stepped in for UEFA head Michel Platini while the Frenchman serves a 90-day ban from all football-related activities, subsequently expressed his commitment to collaborate and demonstrated a willingness to cooperate, according to the Ethics Committee, and has only been sanctioned with a warning and the fine.

Beckenbauer has also been implicated in the scandal surrounding his country winning the right to stage the 2006 World Cup after one of the German Football Association acting vice-presidents claimed he signed a draft contract promising favours to Trinidad and Tobago's Jack Warner shortly before the vote for the tournament.

Rainer Koch, who stepped into the acting role along with Reinhard Rauball following the resignation of Wolfgang Niersbach over claims the successful World Cup bid team received an unexplained loan of almost €6.7 million (£4.7 million/$7.2 million) which was used in a slush fund for vote buying, claimed the contract promised "various services" to Warner.

Beckenbauer, President of the Organising Committee, has been urged to speak out and clarify where the money came from and also what the contract with Warner entailed.

The former Bayern Munich centre-back has offered only a brief riposte to the accusations, despite being directly connected to the allegations, with news on any punishment he might face yet to be revealed.

The Ethics Committee, chaired by Hans‑Joachim Eckert, has also banned the vice-president and general secretary of the Congolese Football Association for six months.

Jean Guy Blaise Mayolas and Badji Mombo Wantete have both been found guilty of committing acts contrary to article 13, general rules of conduct, and article 20, offering and accepting gifts and other benefits, of the FIFA Code of Ethics at world football’s governing body’s Congress in May.

Mayolas and Wantete were two of three officials provisionally banned from carrying out any football-related activities in June, along with Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football general secretary Enrique Sanz, who was consequently sacked in August.

Having already been suspended provisionally for 135 days, the remaining ban to be served by the duo will be 45 days from today.

The decisions were made based on investigations carried out by the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee, under the chairmanship of Cornel Borbély, with the respective bans and sanctions to come into force immediately.


Related stories
October 2015: More corruption allegations hit Spanish football after FC Barcelona coach Enrique calls for inquiry on El Clasico "match-fix" claim
October 2015: Beckenbauer and Villar facing bans, FIFA Ethics Committee reveal
November 2014: Beckenbauer and three current FIFA Executive Committee members under investigation in World Cup scandal