Defiant Blatter vows to fight eight-year ban from Federation Internationale de Football Association

Sepp Blatter will appeal against a Fifa ruling banning him from football for eight years to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, his spokesman said. The ethics commission’s procedure against me is a true mockery. Blatter was already planning to step down on February 26 when a new president is due to be elected.

The pair, who were also fined, had been suspended for 90 days in October while an investigation was carried out into a SF2m (Swiss franc) ($2.02m) payment by Federation Internationale de Football Association to Platini in 2011.

Ethics judges ruled that Blatter broke FIFA Code of Ethics rules on conflicts of interest, breach of loyalty and offering gifts, and Platini broke rules on conflict of interest and loyalty.

Blatter’s hearing lasted eight hours and he appeared before the committee’s adjudicatory chamber with his lawyer, who presented evidence which they believed would clear him of allegations of misconduct.

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The judgement was even more damning of the French football legend than for Blatter.

He also said he “was sorry for FIFA”, which has been engulfed in an unprecedented corruption scandal, including waves of criminal indictments targeting top officials by the United States justice department. “In the Swiss law, if you are suspended for eight years, you must have committed something very, very important”. Platini, once the former front-runner to replace Blatter, also received an eight-year suspension.

Platini was tipped as a future leader of football’s world governing body and is a three-time European Footballer of the Year.

It adds: “Mr Platini failed to act with complete credibility and integrity, showing unawareness of the importance of his duties and concomitant obligations and responsibilities”.

“He’s a drowning man really, there’s no coming back from this”, he said on 5 Live. “How I am treated in this world of humanity”, he said.