Sepp Blatter Disappointed At Rejection Of Appeal Against Provisional Ban

Michel Platini (left) Sepp Blatter (right) are currently suspended over an alleged payment in 2011

Sepp Blatter's lawyers have said the outgoing FIFA president is disappointed after his appeal against a provisional ban was rejected and insisted there was no evidence of an improper conduct over a £1.3million payment to Michel Platini. Blatter and Platini both had their appeals against 90-day provisional bans rejected by FIFA's appeals committee. They remain suspended, pending an ethics committee hearing into the case which surrounds a FIFA payment of 2million Swiss francs to UEFA president Platini in 2011 for work carried out more than nine years previously.

The pair insist there was an oral agreement for the payment made in 1998 when the Frenchman started work as technical advisor for Blatter. No written agreement exists, however, and Platini's job ended in 2002 when he joined FIFA's ethics committee.

Press Association report continues:

The adjudicatory panel of FIFA's ethics committee is due to hold hearings into the misconduct charges before Christmas, and both men could face lengthy bans if the cases are found proved.

A statement issued by Blatter's lawyers said: "President Blatter is disappointed by today's decision of the appeal committee regarding his provisional suspension.

"Noticeably absent from the opinion and these proceedings is any evidence of any improper motivation or purpose for the agreement between FIFA and Mr Platini.

"The appeal committee rendered this decision on 3 November but released it only today, over two weeks later. President Blatter is committed to clearing his name and hopes this inexplicable delay is not an effort to deny him, during his elected term, a fair hearing before a neutral body.

"President Blatter will continue his appeals and looks forward to the opportunity to be heard, including through the presentation of evidence and argument of counsel, and thereby demonstrate he has engaged in no misconduct."

Platini and Blatter are now expected to take their cases to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

FIFA said in a statement that for both Blatter and Platini "the FIFA appeal committee rejected the appeal in full and confirmed in its entirety the decision concerning provisional measures taken ex parte by the adjudicatory chamber of the independent ethics committee".

Blatter can still request a hearing from the ethics committee's adjudicatory chamber to challenge the suspension, but Platini has already gone down this route and failed to have the chamber revoke his suspension, and his only option now is to go to CAS.

Platini's ban means his FIFA presidential election campaign has had to be put on hold. He is one of six candidates for the election on February 26 but no integrity check will be carried out until his case is resolved.

FIFA Rejects Blatter, Platini Appeals Against 90-Day Bans

Associated Press reported on Wednesday that Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini lost their appeals at FIFA on Wednesday against their interim 90-day bans for financial wrongdoing in the growing corruption scandal that has shaken world soccer. Platini's lawyers quickly criticized a "uniquely one-sided, unjust and biased" investigation against him, and claimed it had taken more than two weeks to notify them of a FIFA appeals committee verdict dated Nov. 3.

"It (FIFA) is also organizing — and is no longer even hiding it — a deliberate and unacceptable strategy of delaying Michel Platini's campaign for the FIFA presidency," a spokesman for the former France great's Paris-based legal firm said in a statement.

The provisional ban stops Platini working as UEFA president and halted his candidature for the FIFA election on Feb. 26. Blatter is also barred from his FIFA presidential office after 17 years.

The rejection of their legal challenges was expected from the appeals panel — chaired by Larry Mussenden, the former attorney general of Bermuda — which rarely overturns judgments by FIFA judicial bodies.

Platini and Blatter can file further appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, where appellants can choose one of the three lawyers to judge their case.

"This decision is not a surprise," said the spokesman for Platini's law firm Clifford Chance. The statement noted that sport's highest court was free of the "pressures exerted within FIFA. He has full trust in CAS to re-establish all of his rights."

The bans were imposed last month by FIFA's ethics committee pending full investigations into a US$2 million payment Blatter approved for Platini in 2011 as backdated salary. Platini was employed by Blatter as a presidential adviser from 1998-2002.

Both men deny wrongdoing, though they have acknowledged there was no written contract for the extra salary.

Blatter and Platini are expected to appear before FIFA ethics judge Joachim Eckert in December and face lengthy bans if misconduct is found proven.

Switzerland's attorney general has opened criminal proceedings against Blatter for suspected criminal mismanagement of FIFA money, over Platini's US$2 million and the undervalued sale of Caribbean TV rights for the World Cup.

Swiss federal authorities also questioned Platini at FIFA headquarters on Sept. 25 and are treating him as "between a witness and an accused person," according to the attorney general Michael Lauber.

Platini is among six men competing to succeed his former mentor Blatter as FIFA president.

While the other five candidates — including UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino — have passed integrity checks overseen by FIFA's election committee, Platini's vetting process is on hold until his ethics case is resolved.

He faces a ban of at least several years if the FIFA ethics court finds him guilty of conflicts of interest and breaching the terms of his suspension. Whatever sanctions Eckert applies can also be appealed to CAS.