Bangkok, July 22

A Thai court on Wednesday handed a suspended jail sentence to the scandal-mired head of the nation’s Football Association for falsifying registration documents which complainants said strenghtened his control over the sport.

Worawi Makudi, the general-secretary of Thai football and a long-time executive committee member of the sport’s disgraced world body FIFA, was found guilty of fraudulently changing a document in 2013 after a complaint by a Thai football club. He was initially sentenced to two years in jail and fined 6,000 baht ($175), alongside chairman of the Thai Premier League Ong-art Kohsinkha, but a judge trimmed and suspended the term for two years. “They have never committed a crime before so the judge cut the sentence to one year and six months,” an official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

The case pivoted on a registration document from the Football Association to the Interior Ministry, which was filed ahead of elections for general-secretary that Worawi went on to win. The pair were accused of culling the number of members of the association from 184 to 72, diluting the voting power of the clubs opposed to Worawi, including the complainant Pattaya FC.