Platini ‘kicked in the teeth’ by Federation Internationale de Football Association ban
De Monfort said in June the investigation would be monitored and following Monday’s ruling, which Blatter will appeal, the degree has been withdrawn.
The FIFA president was banned along with UEFA counterpart Michel Platini by FIFA’s Independent Ethics Committee as a result of an alleged “disloyal payment” in 2011.
The judgement was even more damning of French football legend Platini.
However, Platini acknowledged he may run out of time if the issue is not resolved quickly in his favour. “I lost faith in our organization on May 27 with this intervention by American law enforcement”, Blatter said, referring to the pre-dawn raid of a Zurich hotel in May.
“There was a debt that was settled, full stop!” But then I’ll take my responsibilities according to what happens.
Patrick Kanner said he still backed Platini, head of the powerful European football body UEFA, and questioned whether he had been given a fair hearing by a committee he said was close to the old guard of the FIFA world football body.
The FIFA official statement reads: “The adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee chaired by Mr Hans-Joachim Eckert has banned Mr Joseph S. Blatter, President of FIFA, for eight years and Mr Michel Platini, Vice-President and member of the Executive Committee of FIFA and President of UEFA, for eight years from all football-related activities (administrative, sports or any other) on a national and global level”.
While Blatter has not been charged with a crime, many of his former Federation Internationale de Football Association colleagues are under federal indictment for alleged bribery in the bidding for World Cups.
Platini repeated his suspicions that the timing of the ban was a deliberate attempt to prevent him from standing in February’s election. “Suspended eight years for what?”
Platini insists he should not be bunged into the same bracket as Blatter, who has always been suspected of corrupt practices.
German politician Dagmar Freitag, chairperson of the parliamentary sports committee, said Blatter’s reaction to the ban was “a disgrace” and that he “clearly lacks any sense of wrongdoing”.
Despite FIFA following its statutes, Platini’s legal team described the decision as “procedural sabotage” aimed at denying him a place in the election.
Blatter also addressed the suspension of his then right-hand man Jerome Valcke for allegedly selling World Cup tickets for well beyond face value.
Blatter, 79, was on May 29 re-elected for a fifth term.