FIFA bans Blatter, Platini for 8yrs

After several weeks of waiting, world soccer ruling body, FIFA, has banned Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini from football for eight years each for conflict of interest in a $2 million payment deal that is also the subject of a criminal investigation in Switzerland.

The decision was handed down by the FIFA Ethics Committee though they are expected to appeal at the FIFA appeals committee and the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Ethics judges, overseen by German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, ruled that Blatter broke FIFA Code of Ethics rules on conflicts of interest, breach of loyalty and offering or receiving gifts.

Blatter was handed a fine of 50,000 Swiss francs (around $50,000 or £34,000) while Platini was fined 80,000 Swiss francs (some $80,000 or £54,000).

The bans include “all football-related activities (administrative, sports or any other) on a national and international level” and come into force immediately.

“I am sorry. I am sorry that I am still somewhere a punching ball,” Blatter said in a press conference Monday. “I am sorry that as president of FIFA, I am a punching ball. I am sorry for football. I am sorry for the 400 plus FIFA members. I’m sorry. I am sorry about how I am treated in this world of humanitarian qualities.”

The incident in question dates back to 2011, when Platini took 2 million Swiss francs of FIFA money approved by Blatter as un-contracted salary for work as a presidential adviser from 1999 to 2002. Both denied wrongdoing at the time, but the court remained unconvinced.

“Neither in his written statement nor in his personal hearing was Mr. Blatter able to demonstrate another legal basis for this payment,” the judges said. “By failing to place FIFA’s interests first and abstain from doing anything which could be contrary to FIFA’s interests, Mr. Blatter violated his fiduciary duty to FIFA.”

“His (Blatter’s) assertion of an oral agreement was determined as not convincing and was rejected by the chamber.”

Platini, the judges said, “failed to act with complete credibility and integrity, showing unawareness of the importance of his duties and concomitant obligations and responsibilities.”

Blatter, who at 79 years old has racked up 18 years as FIFA president and 22 years as a senior executive before his slow downfall, has been defiant in the face of the charges.

“This is not justice,” he said recently. “I put these people into the office, where they are now in the ethics committee and they don’t even have the courage to listen to the secretary general, Platini or me.”

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