Football leaders, Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini have been slapped with an eight-year ban following the announcement in Zurich on Monday.

The decision to kick the pair out was attributed to both conflict of interest and disloyalty to the association, following a 2 million Swiss franc payment deal that is currently under investigation in Switzerland.

Following the ruling, FIFA released a statement in which it said that it “acknowledges the decisions of the independent Ethics Committee and has no further comment”.

In a news conference on Monday, Mr Blatter was adamant that he would pursue an appeal against the ban.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m still a punching ball,” he said.
“But I will fight. I will fight for me and I will fight for FIFA.”

Mr Platini expressed a similar sentiment, declaring that he will be taking the matter further with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

In an official statement, the UEFA president described the decision as a ‘true mockery’.

“The decision is no surprise to me: the procedure initiated against me by FIFA’s ethics committee is a pure masquerade.

“It has been rigged to tarnish my name by bodies I know well and who for me are bereft of all credibility or legitimacy,” he said, claiming that he will fight the ban “to the end”.

According to the ethics judges however, under the FIFA Code of Ethics both football representatives broke the rules.

In 2011, when Mr Blatter was in the running to be re-elected as FIFA’s president, the pair came under fire after the FIFA president approved 2 million Swisse francs of FIFA’s money to be paid to the UEFA boss as remuneration for his work as a presidential adviser between 1999 and 2002.

Unable to demonstrate a legal basis for the uncontracted payment, Mr Blatter was fined 50,000 Swiss francs ($50,250), while Mr Platini was fined 80,000 Swiss francs ($80,400).

Despite being a favourite to succeed Mr Blatter in the upcoming FIFA election in February, Mr Platini will be out of the running if his name is not cleared.

But head of the English FA, Greg Dyke – formerly a supporter of the Frenchman – doesn’t have high hopes of the ban being lifted any time soon.

“We took an early decision to support Mr Platini, we thought he had done a very good job with UEFA, and we were clearly all very disappointed when all this came out. We didn’t know,” Mr Dyke said on BBC radio.

“I would think this is the end for both him and Blatter.”

Source: ABC/ WSJ/ Reuters