Sepp Blatter has filed an official appeal against his suspension from soccer by FIFA’s ethics committee, his friend and former public relations adviser Klaus Stoehlker said yesterday.
Blatter, the Swiss who has been president of the global soccer body FIFA since 1998, was suspended on Thursday by the association’s ethics committee. The 79-year-old is facing a Swiss criminal investigation.
“He has appealed. He wants to go on until the congress on Feb. 26 and he is not giving up early,” Stoehlker said.
Stoehlker, who has been issuing information on behalf of Blatter since FIFA stopped handling his media affairs on Wednesday last week, said Blatter had left FIFA headquarters at midnight on Thursday.
Blatter’s appeal will go to the FIFA Appeals Committee, headed by Larry Mussenden of Bermuda.
The New York Times said it had obtained a copy of Blatter’s appeal against the suspension.
In it, the newspaper reported that Blatter objected to brusque and unfair treatment. Blatter’s legal team also demanded to see the ethics committee’s case file and sought a hearing to argue their case in full.
The Swiss Attorney General said on Sept. 25 that it had opened a criminal investigation into Blatter concerning a payment of 2 million Swiss francs (US$2.08 million) from FIFA to Michel Platini in 2011 and a Caribbean television rights deal.
Elsewhere, the English and German associations demanded an emergency FIFA executive meeting following the suspension of Blatter and UEFA boss Michel Platini.
The 54-member European body UEFA is also to hold a special meeting, probably on Thursday next week, to discuss Platini’s future role, a source close to the confederation said.
UEFA will probably have to name a stand-in president during Platini’s 90-day suspension from all international soccer matters.
“David Gill, the British member of the FIFA Executive, along with Wolfgang Niersbach, the German representative, have today called for an emergency meeting of the FIFA Executive to discuss this morning’s [Thursday’s] events,” an English Football Association statement said.
Additional reporting by AFP
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