Uefa disappointed by Platini ban

“Suspended eight years for what?” he said, claiming that the payment to Platini was not recorded in Fifa’s records because of an administrative error.

The ruling, handed down by FIFA’s ethics committee, relates to a “disloyal payment” made to Platini worth £1.3 million in 2011.

He said its proceedings, which included a hearing earlier this month that he did not attend, had been “orchestrated…by governing bodies that I know well” to tarnish him.

“He’ll fight, I’m sure of that”.

“We set up the FIFA Ethics Committee on our own and it is independent”.

UEFA added in a separate statement: “UEFA has taken note of the decision of the FIFA Ethics Committee to suspend Michel Platini for eight years from all football-related activities”.

“Naturally, Uefa is extremely disappointed with this decision, which nevertheless is subject to appeal”.

Responding to the ban at a press conference on Monday morning a dishevelled looking Blatter said: “I’m sorry that I am still a punching ball”.

He said: “I’ve heard Sepp Blatter is going to appeal but really there is no point”.

The presidential election is due to take place on 26 February.

Blatter, 79, and Platini, 60, were then “immediately” banned from all football activity.

Blatter and Platini previously had been provisionally suspended for 90 days by the ethics committee.

It also said Mr Platini’s argument that there had been an oral agreement for the payment had not been convincing, and he, too, had abused his position as a Federation Internationale de Football Association vice-president and executive committee member.

Ex-FA chairman David Bernstein, who retired from his position in 2013 to give way to Dyke, also feels Blatter will not be able to win any appeal.

Platini was expected to become FIFA’s next president in the wake of the lengthy scandal surrounding current chief Sepp Blatter.

“The evidence available to the adjudicatory chamber in the present case was not sufficient to establish, to the extent required, that Mr Platini obtained the payment for the execution or omission of an official act…”

The pair have expressed their plans to fight all charges and bans by appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Seven FIFA officials were arrested at a Zurich hotel at the end of May.

“If we had awarded the World Cup in 2022 to the United States of America, we would not be here”, Blatter said in Italian at a meandering, almost one-hour news conference. There is also an ongoing criminal investigation by the Swiss attorney general, of which Blatter is the main target.