On Tuesday the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland denied an appeal by Keramuddin Karim, the former head of Afghanistan’s Football Federation (AFF) and upheld his ban for life from the sport for accusations of sexually abusing players from the women’s national team.

On 8 June 2019, Mr Karim was found guilty by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee of having abused his position and sexually abused various female players. As a result, Mr Karim was sanctioned with a life ban from all football-related activities (administrative, sports or any other) at both national and international level, as well as a fine in the amount of CHF 1,000,000.

 “The CAS Panel dismissed the appeal and confirmed the decision taken by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee on 8 June 2019 in which Keramuddin Karim was found to have breached article 23” it said in a statement.

The FIFA Ethics Committee investigation into Keramuddin Karim concerned complaints lodged by female Afghan football players accusing him of sexual abuse in the period 2013 – 2018, it said.

“During the CAS hearing, several players of the AFF women’s national team stated that they had been sexually and physically abused by Keramuddin Karim,” it said, adding that “the players testified from a secured place, by telephone, using a voice scrambler to protect their identity.”

“The Panel in charge of this matter underlined that, unlike bribery and match-fixing which damage the integrity of the sport, the offenses committed by Keramuddin Karim violated basic human rights and damaged the mental and physical dignity and integrity of young female players. With his appalling acts, he had destroyed not only their careers, but severely damaged their lives,” according to the statement.

It also mentioned that Karim should get the most severe sanction possible available under the FIFA Code of Ethics.

FIFA welcomed CAS’s Tuesday decision in the case Mr. Karim.