Ex Liberia football chief Bility banned by FIFA for stealing Ebola funds

The International Football Federation Association (FIFA) on Wednesday banned former Liberian football head Musa Hassan Bility for stealing money earmarked by the association to help Ebola awareness during the deadly epidemic that killed 11,000 people in West Africa.

File photo of Musa Hassan Bility, former head of the Liberian Football Association, was banned by FIFA for 10 years AFP/Zoom DOSSO

FIFA on Wednesday banned the former of head of the Liberian Football Association from football for 10 years over corruption, including misuse of funds intended for an Ebola awareness campaign.

Bility, also an executive committee member at the Confederation of African Football (CAF), was found “guilty of having misappropriated FIFA funds, as well as having received benefits and found himself in situations of conflict of interest, in violation of the FIFA Code of Ethics,” according the statement from FIFA.

He was banned from any dealings with football for 10 years, and also slapped with a €455,000 fine by judges sitting on the FIFA independent ethics committee board.

The investigation into Bility’s fund bilking was launched in May 2018, relating to “the misappropriation of the funds granted under FIFA's '11 against Ebola' campaign,” said FIFA.

The campaign used top soccer stars to reinforce Ebola prevention and awareness measures in November 2014, when the pandemic was at its height in Liberia, as well as neighbouring Sierra Leone and Guinea.

The judges also found that other funds sent to the Liberian Football Association, which Bility was the head of, were being siphoned off and given to businesses supported by him or his family.

In 2015, Bility had tried to run for FIFA president to replace Sepp Blatter, who had been removed after a number of scandals. FIFA barred him from running, saying he had “failed to pass integrity tests”.

More recently, Bility, as an executive member of the African Football Confederation (CAF), criticized FIFA for repositioning itself to have a direct role in African football.