Cambodia's football federation bans officials over fund embezzlement

Phnom Penh (Cambodia), May 7 (IANS) The Football Federation of Cambodia (FFC) has banned four senior officials for life for allegedly embezzling the federation's funds.The four included FFC deputy secretary-general May Tola, chief referee Tuy Vicheka, finance office chief Chhaing Piseth and administration office chief Kol Sophearom, FFC secretary-general Keo Sareth said on Wednesday, reports Xinhua news agency."They have been fired from the federation and have been suspended from taking part in any footballing activity for life," Sareth said in a press conference.He said the four had colluded with each other to pilfer about 30 percent of the annual funds that a beer company had provided to the FFC for the development of football in the country."In total, they had embezzled nearly 60,000 US dollars from the FFC's funds from 2015 to 2019," Sareth said. "This is a serious breach of trust and they have confessed to the crime."He said the FFC would file the case to the court of justice for legal action and to get the money back from them.
--IANS aak/bbh/