Suspended FIFA president Blatter and suspended UEFA boss Platini are to learn their fate on Monday over whether there was impropriety in a £1.3million payment received by the latter from the former in 2011. FIFA’s ethics committee has asked for sanctions against Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini after finishing investigations into their alleged financial wrongdoing.
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FIFA’s ethics committee is considering the suspension of European soccer chief Michel Platini in Zurich.
The FIFA logo is pictured outside the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015.
Platini has said the verdict was decided in advance and refused to attend the hearing in Switzerland, leaving his legal team to fight his corner.
Blatter and Platini will hear on Monday morning whether their suspensions have been lifted.
After the hearing Blatter’s Virginia-based lawyer Richard Cullen issued a statement calling for an acquittal.
A source close to FIFA’s temporary leadership said “it is not the investigators job to be impartial”.
The procedure meant he was unable to join the race to be Blatter’s replacement when a new Federation Internationale de Football Association leader is chosen in February, but his agent, as reported by the BBC, said on Friday: “Platini is innocent”.
A verdict is expected to be reached on both cases on Monday. “FIFA and football need to change and need to be seen to be changing, so I think it would be difficult if that accusation was not totally laid to rest and I think it’s quite hard to do that”. No immediate comment was available from FIFA’s ethics committee.
“FIFA listened to us and made this decision on holding 2018 World Cup in Russian Federation with the aim of developing world football and not for any corruption considerations”, Putin said in the news conference, according to TASS, claiming Russian Federation “could not have exerted any pressure”. Numerous FIFA members are known to have accounts in the country.
“There may be more challenges, and it will take time for the reforms to take effect”.
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Figueredo, the former president of South American confederation CONMEBOL, was one of seven top football officials arrested in a raid on a Zurich luxury hotel in May, a raid that kicked off an unprecedented crisis at FIFA.
