FIFA’s ethics committee probing allegations of corruption against suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his would-be successor, UEFA president Michel Platini, yesterday requested that sanctions be leveled against both men. Citing privacy and the presumption of innocence, the committee said it would not disclose the nature of the punishments requested against the two men, who, for years, were the most powerful figures in world soccer.
The committee, known as the investigatory chamber of FIFA’s independent ethics watchdog, said it had submitted its final report to the body’s judgement arm, which is to weigh up the recommendations. The fallout from the report could prove massive for the future of world soccer’s governing body, including the possibility of permanently derailing Platini’s candidacy to lead FIFA.
The investigatory chamber said in a statement that its final report contained “requests for sanctions against Joseph Blatter and Michel Platini.”
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A separate statement from the adjudicatory chamber confirmed that it had received the reports and is to study the findings “carefully.”
The judgement chamber said it would “decide in due course about whether to institute formal adjudicatory proceedings against Joseph Blatter and Michel Platini.”
The adjudicatory body has in the past recommended suspensions of several years, or even life, but there was no indication as to the severity of the punishments requested against Blatter and Platini. Both men last month were provisionally suspended by the ethics committee for 90 days.
The moves came after Swiss prosecutors opened an investigation into possible criminal mismanagement at FIFA during Blatter’s tenure, including evidence of a murky US$2 million payment made to Platini in 2011, reportedly for work he did a decade earlier. Aside from the Swiss probe, the US Department of Justice has charged 14 ex-FIFA officials and sports marketing executives with more than US$150 million of bribery and corruption dating back decades. Those indictments, unsealed in May, uncorked the scandal that has shaken world soccer and grown seemingly wider each week.
Appeals by both Blatter and Platini against their 90-day suspensions were rejected this week, and Platini has taken his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with a decision expected by the end of the month.
Reversing the suspension which lasts until Jan. 5 is crucial to the French soccer legend, because the provisional ban has thrown the brakes on his campaign to replace Blatter. Platini, the head of European soccer until his suspension, had been the favorite to win FIFA’s presidential vote scheduled for Feb. 26, until he became engulfed in the raging FIFA scandal.
While suspended, Platini cannot lobby regional confederations to support his candidacy, while the five other men vying for the job — who have already passed FIFA’s integrity tests — are free to campaign. The 60-year-old ex-Juventus star has denied all wrongdoing and has insisted that he can still lead world soccer out of an era that has seen its reputation stained at the highest levels of the game. Blatter has also remained defiant throughout, insisting that he has done nothing wrong and that all financial impropriety that took place under his watch was the fault of rogue operators. After winning election to a fifth term as FIFA’s president, Blatter announced that he would go when his successor is chosen at a special congress called for February. Despite the suspension, Blatter’s camp has insisted that he would return to the presidency before the vote.
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