EARLY DAYS

 * Born May 8, 1949, in Doha, Qatar.

 * A former chairman of top Qatari side Al Rayyan Sports Club, he took over as president of the Qatar Football Association in 1992 and served for four years.

* He won West Asia’s seat on the FIFA executive committee in 1996 and was appointed member of Qatar’s parliament by the country’s Emir soon after.

 AFC PRESIDENT

 * He was elected AFC president in 2002 and played an instrumental role in Sepp Blatter’s election campaigns for FIFA president.

 * Widely considered a reformer of the Asian game, Bin Hammam has been credited with raising standards by attracting commercial investment, introducing numerous national development programmes and bringing Australia into the Asian confederation.

 * His staunchest critics, however, have accused him of being a dictator who has divided the AFC’s 46 member countries.

 * In 2009 he survived a challenge for his FIFA executive committee seat from Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa by the narrowest of margins after a hardfought campaign where his mental health was questioned by former FIFA vice-president Chung Mong-joon.

 AMBITION

 * Despite his charisma, Bin Hammam is famous for his controversial words and in 2009 he said he would “cut off the head” of a rival he claimed was trying to engineer his downfall, a comment he later explained was a “misinterpreted” Arab metaphor.

 * High on ambition, he once said top European clubs would have to compete with Asian sides in future to sign big-name players and has continuely pushed his AFC motto: ‘the future is Asia’.

 * In December, Qatar were surprise winners of the hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup and although Bin Hammam was not a member of the bid team, many observers acknowledged his influence in the FIFA executive committee had helped to sway key votes.

 * In January he was sworn in for a third and final four-year term as AFC head. However, after reconciling with Chung, he was unable to help his preferred candidate retain his FIFA vice-president seat at the Congress as Prince Ali of Jordan was nominated ahead of the South Korean.

 * In March, after dropping hints for months, he announced his intention to run for FIFA president and unveiled a manifesto built on transparency and technology.

 * On Thursday, May 26, 2011, less than a week before the FIFA presidency vote, he was accused of bribery at a meeting of the Caribbean Football Union on May 10-11 in Port of Spain, Trinidad by his fellow FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer. He withdrew his nomination for the presidency two days later.

 * The following day he was provisionally suspended from all FIFA and football related activities on corruption charges and duly replaced as AFC president by temporary president Zhang Jilong of China.

 * He was banned for life on Saturday following a two-day hearing by FIFA’s ethics committee, who found him guilty of trying to buy votes ahead of the presidential election.