Sepp Blatter, his face partially covered by a huge plaster, today claimed he was being treated like a punchbag after he and Michel Platini were banned from all football activities for eight years and fined by the FIFA adjudicatory ethics chamber.
The decision, revealed in Zurich on Monday, brings a definitive end to Blatter and Platini’s control of the sport, while the Frenchman will be unable to run for FIFA presidency on February 26.
The bans have been imposed by FIFA’s ethics committee judge Hans-Joachim Eckert for a ‘disloyal payment’ of £1.35million (2million Swiss francs) to Platini, signed off by Blatter in 2011.
A dishevelled Blatter, sporting a large plaster after apparently having a mole removed from his face, spoke at a packed news conference shortly after the decision was made.
He confirmed he will appeal to the Court of Arbitration in Sport, insisting only the FIFA congress could remove him as president. He blamed everyone but himself and insisted: ‘I’ll be back’.
‘I am really sorry. I am sorry that I am still somewhere a punching ball,’ he said. ‘I am sorry that as president of FIFA, I am this punching ball. I am sorry for football.’
The charges found proven included offering and accepting gifts, conflict of interest, and violating their fiduciary duty to FIFA.
Blatter looked disheveled as he got out of his chauffeur-driven car on Monday morning, accompanied by his daughter, Corinne, and media spokesman Thomas Renggli.
He was wearing a plaster beneath his right eye, thought to be because of the removal of a mole.
The 79-year-old was hospitalised in November after suffering what was described as a ‘small emotional breakdown.’
‘My brain and my heart are always fine, my body is letting me down,’ he reportedly said.
He said on Monday: ‘I will not speak about my health (but) at a certain time, on November 1, without the big help of the medical department, we wouldn’t be here.’
Blatter has been fined £33,700 (50,000 Swiss francs), with UEFA president Platini fined £53,940 (80,000 Swiss francs).
The FIFA statement read: ‘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 international level. The bans come into force immediately.
‘The proceedings against Mr Blatter primarily related to a payment of CHF 2,000,000 (£1.35m) transferred in February 2011 from FIFA to Mr Platini.
‘Mr Blatter, in his position as President of FIFA, authorised the payment to Mr Platini which had no legal basis in the written agreement signed between both officials on 25 August 1999.
‘Neither in his written statement nor in his personal hearing was Mr Blatter able to demonstrate another legal basis for this payment. His assertion of an oral agreement was determined as not convincing and was rejected by the chamber.’
The investigative arm had recommended lifetime bans after the undocumented consultancy fee Blatter paid Platini, nine years after the work was done.
Blatter and Platini had claimed the payment had been made following a verbal agreement between the pair when the Frenchman worked for Blatter from 1998 to 2002.
The explanation was rejected as ‘not convincing’ by the ethics committee, who added that the evidence has not been sufficient to secure charges of corruption.
Blatter insists the late payment in 2011 followed an oral agreement with Platini, of which no record exists. He wrote to FIFA’s 209 member associations protesting his innocence last week, saying he had been employed by FIFA for 40 years for and ‘always performed my duties to the best of my knowledge and belief and at all times faced up to the challenges with respect’.
He continued in his news conference: ‘You can identify me as an optimist. We thought we had convinced the panel with Mr Eckert in the chair about this situation which was created about the payment by FIFA and to Michel Platini for an on-going contract which was never terminated.
‘We are in a so-called oral contract or gentleman’s agreement and this was made in 1998 just after the World Cup in France where Mr Platini approached me, and I approached him because we were together there, and said he would like to work for FIFA.
‘I said it is wonderful if you come to FIFA but he said ‘I am a very expensive man’ and I said that’s OK but we cannot pay you now. What astonishes me now, if I am going through the decision today, is they deny the existence of such an agreement.’
Blatter and Platini both have strong motivation to fight the bans in fast-track appeal cases.
Blatter, who turns 80 in March, wants a FIFA swansong by hosting the election congress in Zurich and being made honorary president by the 209 member federations.
60-year-old Platini wants to clear his name, pass a FIFA integrity check and be declared an official candidate in the election he had been favored to win.
Platini’s campaign has stalled since being quizzed on September 25 in a Swiss federal investigation of suspected criminal mismanagement at FIFA.
Switzerland’s attorney general has opened criminal proceedings against Blatter for the suspected ‘disloyal payment’ of FIFA money to Platini and selling undervalued World Cup TV rights for the Caribbean.
Platini’s status in the criminal case is ‘between a witness and an accused person,’ attorney general Michael Lauber said in October.DM.