Sepp Blatter and UEFA President Michel Platini, the former France great who had been favoured to take over as FIFA leader, were both suspended for 90 days yesterday, plunging football’s governing body deeper into crisis.
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Platini, scalp of European entire body UEFA, became a frontrunner to switch him.
Sports minister Tracey Crouch said Blatter should resign immediately.
It was also announced that the Independent Chairman of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the Ethics Committee issued a provisional 90-day ban for FIFA’s Secretary General, Jérôme Valcke.
The suspension comes less than two weeks after Swiss attorneys opened a criminal investigation against Blatter.
The ban for Blatter can appealed against and can also be increased. In addition, the committee banned former vice president Chung Mong-joon for six years and imposed a $100,000 fine.
Platini said he felt “staunch defiance” over the suspension from all involvement in worldwide football.
Bach declared “enough is enough” over the FIFA scandal and demanded that football’s world governing body considers a “credible external candidate” as president to help clean up the mess. He was once punished for misconduct by the worldwide Olympic Committee.
The Swiss, through his personal lawyer claimed the committee failed to allow him present evidence that will exonerate him from the charges before him.
All three are suspended for 90 days with a statement by FIFA saying they are “banned from all football activities on a national and worldwide level”.
“FIFA’s credibility has been on the wind for a very long time to the extent that a few of the major sponsors of Federation Internationale de Football Association have asked for Sepp Blatter to step down”.
If normal procedures are followed, Fifa’s most senior vice president, the Cameroonian Issa Hayatou will be installed as acting president. The ban should mean that he will not be able to attend the Euro 2016 draw in Paris on December 12 – a bitter blow to the 60-year-old in his own country.
Blatter was due to stand down after an election for his replacement in February but this move essentially ends his 17-year reign.
Hayatou added, “A new president will be chosen by the Extraordinary Congress… I myself will not be a candidate for that position”.
The UEFA statement stressed that the executive committee “expressed its full confidence” in Platini and will meet next Thursday in Nyon.
But it will be up to an electoral commission to decide now whether he can stand, officials said.
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According to UEFA statutes, Platini should be replaced by Angel Maria Villar, the highest-ranking vice president, though the organisation did not name an interim president.
