Federation Internationale de Football Association court to hear Blatter, Platini cases

“US authorities asked for documents related to 50 accounts at different banks, through which corruption money is supposed to have transited”, Swiss Justice Ministry spokesman Folco Galli said, confirming a report by Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger.

Nicolas Leoz, a longtime head of the South American confederation, CONMEBOL, had 12 accounts in Switzerland, the Swiss television programme Eco said, quoting details from the U.S. request.

Blatter, as you may have heard, is the subject of a corruption investigation on two continents and likely faces a lengthy – if not lifetime – Federation Internationale de Football Association ban when that organization’s Ethics Committee issues a final ruling on its investigation into various dodgy-seeming schemes next week.

World soccer’s governing body is suffering its worst corruption scandal in its history, with 41 entities and people including soccer bosses from throughout the Americas under indictment by USA prosecutors.

Blatter is scheduled to appear at Federation Internationale de Football Association headquarters in Zurich on Thursday; Platini on Friday, though he has said that he won’t appear.

Under Blatter’s leadership, Federation Internationale de Football Association empowered a tougher and more independent ethics committee in 2012.

Blatter complained about the ethics committee’s power to Russian news agency TASS after his 90-day was imposed.

Blatter has reiterated that a 2 million Swiss franc (USD 2.02 million) payment from Federation Internationale de Football Association to Platini in 2011 – when Blatter was running for re-election – was legitimate and resulted from a verbal contract for work Platini had done for the organisation years before. A verdict is expected for December 21.

The statement from the committee’s judges added that a boycott of the hearing by Platini would see him “miss the opportunity to present his points of view vis-à-vis the adjudicatory chamber in person”.

The Russian president was full of praise for Blatter on Monday, claiming he has done much to develop the sport globally.

“That’s who should be given the Nobel Peace Prize”, he said calling Blatter a very respected man.