FIFA tells Platini he can’t appeal directly to sports court

After being banned from all football-related activities by the Fifa ethics committee, the suspended governing body president has been stripped of his honorary degree from Leicester’s De Montfort University.

Blatter was provisionally suspended in October after he became the target of a criminal investigation by Swiss prosecutors over a 2 million Swiss franc ($2 million/1.8 million euros) payment he authorised to UEFA president Michel Platini in 2011.

Both men are appealing against eight-year bans issued on Monday. Blatter, 79, has worked for the organization for four decades and served as its president since 1998.

Platini has already suggested that he will launch a formal appeal against the eight-year ban from all football-related activity, and a statement from Blatter’s lawyers today confirmed that the long-reigning FIFA chief would do the same.

Mr Blatter has vowed to appeal against the ban, and is ready to take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if necessary.

In recent media interviews, both men said Platini asked Blatter for a salary of 1 million Swiss francs.

Platini was also dismissive of the ethics commission’s work.

“I will fight this to the end”, he said. And investigators have failed to unearth anything that warrants stripping Russian Federation and Qatar of soccer’s showpiece tournaments in 2018 and 2022 respectively.

Blatter also expressed surprise he was not informed by the adjudicatory committee before they released their statement.

The FIFA ethics committee found Blatter and Platini had demonstrated an “abusive execution” of their positions. The committee operates independently of FIFA; its members are appointed by the FIFA Congress and can not be members of any standing committees.

Until his suspension, Platini had been the front-runner to succeed Blatter at the top of world football. Following Monday’s ruling, a British pundit made Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, president of the Asian Football Confederation, the favorite, followed by Jordan’s Prince Ali Al-Hussein and UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino, of Switzerland.