FIFA bans Blatter, Platini from soccer for 8 years

Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, two of the most powerful figures in global soccer, were barred from the sport for eight years on Monday morning after being found guilty of ethics violations.

The suspensions were imposed by the independent ethics committee of FIFA, soccer’s international governing body. Mr. Blatter, who is FIFA’s longtime president, as well as Mr. Platini, who is the president of UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, are prohibited from taking part in any soccer-related activities while barred — a sanction which, in Mr. Platini’s case, seemingly ends any chance that he will be able to run in February’s special election to fill the post Mr. Blatter has already said he would vacate.

Mr. Blatter, 79, and Mr. Platini, 60, had been provisionally suspended since October while the investigative chamber of the ethics committee scrutinized their actions at the helm of the sport, in particular a payment of about $2 million that Mr. Blatter approved for Mr. Platini in 2011. The judiciary chamber of the committee on Monday ruled that there was no legal basis for the payment.

Both Mr. Blatter and Mr. Platini are expected to appeal the verdicts to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, a Switzerland-based body that frequently arbitrates matters involving sports governance.

It is also likely that both men will seek an expedited process. Mr. Blatter wants desperately to have his name cleared so that he can host February’s special FIFA Congress where his successor will be chosen (and, perhaps, where he can also lobby to be named honorary president). Mr. Platini, who had long been seen as the front-runner in the election, will hope to salvage a last-ditch entry into the race.

At this point, however, it seems most likely that the suspensions will leave Mr. Blatter and Mr. Platini on the outside of the sport they have led for decades. Mr. Blatter has worked for FIFA since 1975, and he was elected president in 1998. Mr. Platini has been a member of FIFA’s governing executive committee since 2002.

The two men remain under investigation by Swiss prosecutors, who are looking into suspicions of criminal mismanagement of FIFA’s finances and at Mr. Blatter for making what have been described as “disloyal” payments, as well as for selling undervalued television rights to FIFA events. Mr. Platini is a part of that investigation, though not a direct target.

The FIFA suspensions came after a weekend of deliberations from the ethics committee, which heard Mr. Blatter’s side of the story on Thursday and Mr. Platini’s on Friday. Mr. Platini did not attend his hearing, sending his lawyer instead in a form of protest over what he said was a predetermined outcome. “I am already judged, I am already condemned,” Mr. Platini said in a statement read by his lawyer.

Mr. Blatter, who is expected to respond to his suspension at a news conference later on Monday morning, attended his hearing and spent about eight hours defending his record as an employee at FIFA, in various capacities, for 40 years.

Mr. Blatter became FIFA’s president in 1998, and Mr. Platini worked for him as a special consultant from 1999 to 2002. Mr. Blatter approved a payment of $2 million to Mr. Platini nine years later, in 2011, that he has said was simply back payment of salary owed. There was no written contract detailing the basis for the payment, however, and Mr. Platini has said in interviews that there was simply a “gentleman’s agreement” between him and Mr. Blatter to cover the difference between what he was paid at the time and the full amount.

Investigators found the late payment suspicious in part because of its timing — just a few months before Mr. Blatter began campaigning for re-election to a fourth term as FIFA president. UEFA, led by Mr. Platini, supported Mr. Blatter, who subsequently won the vote after the only other candidate in the race withdrew.

Mr. Blatter won another four-year term this past May, only to announce days later that he would step down amid a growing scandal enveloping soccer. The United States Department of Justice has indicted more than three dozen top soccer officials and marketing executives on a variety of corruption charges, and the Swiss authorities are conducting their own investigation, which includes an examination of the process by which Russia and Qatar were awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments.

In addition to the criminal investigations, FIFA’s ethics committee has been more public in its discipline, and Monday’s bans were not out of context with previous decisions. Chung Mong-joon, an honorary FIFA vice president, recently received a six-year ban for ethics violations, while Harold Mayne-Nicholls, a Chilean who was involved in the evaluation of the 2018 and 2022 bids, received a seven-year ban.

Source: New York Times