Ban big ask when villains
QATAR is a step closer to being stripped of the 2022 World Cup after FIFA kingpins Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini were each banned for eight years.
There is still a long way to go before this unprecedented step can be completed, and there are no guarantees, but the FIFA house of cards is slowly collapsing.
The irony is the bans came from the previously toothless FIFA Ethics Committee, which Blatter set up in classic reactionary fashion.
In truth, it was a kangaroo court until Mohammed bin Hammam’s life ban from football and now the Platini-Blatter double whammy.
The real hope for reform remains with the twin Swiss and US investigations, and the New FIFA Now group campaigning for root-and-branch reform of world football’s governing body.
Unless something unforeseen occurs, it certainly won’t come at the February 26 FIFA election – in which Platini was a candidate until his ban.
Although Prince Ali appears to offer the greatest chance of reform, he, Jerome Champagne, Gianni Infantino, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalif and Tokyo Sexwale have all been “FIFA insiders”.
Heck, Platini may yet be eligible, with the Frenchman and Blatter to contest their bans. The $2.8 million payment from a FIFA account to Platini in 2011 triggered the eight-year bans and is among the “suspect transactions” being investigated by higher authorities. The Swiss opened proceedings against Blatter in September “on suspicion of criminal mismanagement”.
The investigation initially focused on the (flawed) process that led to Russia and Qatar being awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups respectively in the controversial twoin-one ballot that was primed for collusion.
It has since broadened to include alleged money laundering, racketeering and fraud,