Former FIFA presidential candidate Mohamed bin Hammam must wait two months for a verdict in his appeal against a lifetime ban from world football for alleged bribery.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport said lawyers for Bin Hammam and FIFA did not request an urgent ruling, and its panel aims to give a ruling by the end of June after completing a two-day hearing Thursday.
Bin Hammam did not attend the closed-door court sessions, which examined FIFA's evidence that Caribbean voters were offered $40,000 bribes last May to back the Qatari in his election contest against Sepp Blatter.
Bin Hammam's American lawyer, Eugene Gulland, read a prepared statement outside court saying his client maintained his innocence.
Bin Hammam had ''presented a strong case and he looks forward with great hope that the court will find ... that FIFA has not proved its charges against him,'' Gulland said. He declined to answer questions on why his client did not attend the hearing to face questions from FIFA's lawyers.
FIFA's legal team of Swiss lawyer Antonio Rigozzi and Adam Lewis from England did not comment when leaving the court.
CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb said the parties appeared ''satisfied'' by the proceedings.
Reeb said 10 witnesses were cross-examined, but the court would not reveal their identities or details of the evidence and legal arguments.
Bin Hammam's lawyers were expected to challenge whether some of FIFA's evidence was admissible in court.
Officials from four Caribbean Football Union member countries turned whistleblower to FIFA last May after Bin Hammam made a campaign visit in Trinidad.
Other Caribbean officials later gave evidence to FIFA, and returned the $40,000 cash payments, during an investigation conducted by an independent agency led by former FBI director Louis Freeh.
FIFA's ethics committee used the evidence to suspend Bin Hammam four days before 208 football nations were scheduled to vote in the presidential election in Zurich.
Bin Hammam claimed Blatter had been aware that gifts would be offered in Trinidad, and said the FIFA president helped orchestrate a scandal to ensure victory.
He withdrew his candidacy, leaving Blatter unopposed to get a fourth four-year term.
Bin Hammam, the Asian Football Confederation president and member of FIFA's executive committee since 1996, was banned from all football duties by the ethics court last July.
FIFA's appeals committee upheld the sanction, allowing Bin Hammam to pursue his case at world sport's highest court.
Gulland said the CAS hearing ''was Mr. Bin Hammam's first chance to answer charges against him in front of a court that is not controlled by FIFA.
''Mr. Bin Hammam has always insisted on his innocence, and he has always rejected the charges of vote-buying and bribery that FIFA brought against him,'' the lawyer said.
The panel's Spanish chairman Jose Maria Alonso will deliberate with English lawyers Philippe Sands, who was selected by Bin Hammam, and Romano Subiotto, who was nominated by FIFA.
If Bin Hammam loses, he has a further right of appeal to Switzerland's supreme court within 30 days of receiving the CAS ruling.
