The Confederation of African Football fined the Liberian Football Association $10,000 and banned its president for six months on Thursday because he used the minutes from a CAF executive committee meeting without permission.
CAF said the punishment against Hassan Bility was decided at a meeting of its disciplinary board on April 25 after he accessed ''confidential documents'' without the body's ''prior approval.''
Liberia clashed with CAF's hierarchy recently after the West African country appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport over election rule changes that appeared to be engineered to favor incumbent CAF president Issa Hayatou by limiting who could challenge him. Liberia failed in its appeal against CAF's new ruling that only executive committee members could stand against longtime leader Hayatou, and the Cameroonian was elected unopposed in Morocco in March.
CAF didn't give any more details on Bility's use of the documents or say if it was related to Liberia's legal challenge against Hayatou's re-election. Bility is banned from any involvement in football for six months.
In other decisions announced Thursday, six clubs were fined for crowd trouble and supporters using flares, and CAF recommended a doctor with the South African women's national team be banned for four years for administering banned substances to a player.
The player, Sister Amanda, also had her two-year suspension reduced to a year after she tested positive for the synthetic drugs Prednisone and Prednisolone at the African Women's Championship in Equatorial Guinea last year. But CAF said the doctor, who was not named, should be banned for four years by the South African Football Association for being ''responsible for the injection.''
The clubs - Al Ahly of Egypt, WAC of Morocco, AS Vita of Congo, El Merreikh of Sudan, Power Dynamos of Zambia and Dynamos of Zimbabwe - received fines ranging from $5,000 to $40,000 for the throwing of flares from the stands and other crowd unrest.
Al Ahly was fined $40,000 and ordered to play four games without fans after its supporters threw flares in African club competition. CAF said half of the fine and two of the four games were suspended.
Sudan's El Merreikh was fined $20,000 for failing to ensure the safety of players and officials when its fans threw missiles and damaged a vehicle being used by an opposition team. The Zambian and Zimbabwean clubs were each fined $10,000 for fans throwing missiles.
