Blatter and Platini set for ‘lengthy bans’
Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini are expected to receive lengthy Fifa bans but not lifetime suspensions, according to insiders ahead of hearings taking place this week.
Blatter and Platini will have disciplinary hearings before Fifa ethics judge HansJoachim Eckert in Zurich over a £1.3m payment made to Platini by the game’s ruling body in 2011 and signed off by Blatter.
Outgoing Fifa president Blatter and Uefa president Platini face charges including corruption, conflict of interest and non-co-operation. Sources with knowledge of the case say that it will be difficult to prove corruption, which carries a lifetime ban, but believe there is clear evidence of a conflict of interest in the payment being made.
That should carry a ban of at least seven years, but it is likely any suspension for wrongdoing will effectively end their careers in football politics.
Blatter’s case will be heard on Thursday with Platini’s following on Friday. A decision is expected to be announced by Monday next week.
The payment was made to Platini in February 2011. The Frenchman and Blatter say the payment was honouring an agreement made in 1998 for work carried out between 1998 and 2002, when Platini worked as a technical adviser for the Fifa president.
However, the payment was not part of Platini’s written contract. He and Blatter have insisted it was an oral agreement, legal under Swiss law.
The timing of the payment has raised eyebrows, however, taking place nine years after Platini had stopped working for Fifa, and made while Blatter was seeking support for a fourth term as president. Several weeks after the payment was made Platini and Uefa’s executive committee endorsed his candidacy.
Both Platini and Blatter have denied any wrongdoing – Platini has said he was not paid the full amount agreed in 1998 because of Fifa’s financial situation at the time.
South Korea’s former Fifa vice-president Chung Mongjoon was banned for six years in October for conflict of interestandnon-co-operation, and Chung’s case would appear to be less serious than that facing Blatter and Platini.
The pair are likely to challenge any ban and take the case all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.