Blatter appeal verdict to be announced Monday by CAS

The verdict in former FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s appeal against a six-year ban for unethical conduct will be announced on Monday.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said on Friday it will publish the ruling at 3 p.m. Swiss time (1400 GMT).

Blatter has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in authorizing a $2 million payment to Michel Platini in 2011. They claimed it was uncontracted salary for France great Platini advising Blatter from 1999 to 2002.

FIFA’s ethics committee ruled the payment was a conflict of interest in 2011 — just as a FIFA presidential election campaign was starting — and banned both for eight years last December. FIFA’s appeal committee cut the bans to six years.

Platini, who gave evidence for Blatter at a 14-hour hearing in August, previously had his ban cut to four years at CAS.

Though a different three-member panel judged Blatter’s case, it would typically be obliged to respect the precedent of the Platini case which was based on much of the same evidence.

Swiss federal prosecutors opened criminal proceedings against Blatter in September 2015 when details of the “disloyal payment” to Platini emerged. Both men were questioned at FIFA headquarters by Swiss investigators who waited for them outside an executive committee meeting.

The case ended then-FIFA vice president Platini’s chance to replace Blatter as president, and also forced him out of UEFA.

Whatever the verdict on Monday, Blatter faces another FIFA ethics investigation over alleged bribery and self-dealing in his contract, plus the employment deals of his former secretary general Jerome Valcke and finance director Markus Kattner. FIFA has fired both officials.

FIFA ethics investigators said in September the latest case involved an alleged “coordinated effort by three former top officials of FIFA to enrich themselves.”

Blatter received a 12 million Swiss franc ($12 million) bonus after the successful 2014 World Cup in Brazil and would have been due another 12 million Swiss francs for completing his 2015-19 presidential term, the contracts revealed.

Blatter announced his intention in June 2015 to leave FIFA, days after American and Swiss federal investigations of alleged corruption were revealed.

He was suspended from duty in October 2015, and his 40-year employment by FIFA formally ended in February when Platini’s former right-hand man at UEFA, Gianni Infantino, was elected president.