By Andrew Warshaw
November 21 – Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini suffered a potentially crippling blow in their efforts to clear their names of any wrongdoing when FIFA investigators today announced they have officially called for sanctions to be taken against both men over that notorious SFr2 million payment.
The investigatory arm of FIFA’s ethics committee has passed its findings to adjudicatory chamber chairman Hans-Joachim Eckert, with hearings and probable sentencing likely before Christmas – as predicted by Insideworldfootball.
On Wednesday, Blatter and Platini had appeals against their 90-day provisional suspensions, imposed last month, rejected by FIFA’s appeals committee. Both deny any misconduct and are now going to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
In it understood the case against both the FIFA president and his would-be successor, head of UEFA, cover four potential breaches of the ethics code including conflict of interest and falsification of accounts. In a statement, the investigatory chamber said the recommendations will not be yet be published “for reasons linked to privacy rights and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty,”
Interestingly, investigatory chief Cornel Borbely did not conduct the case, withdrawing from proceedings because he is Swiss in order to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.
Blatter, who is under Swiss criminal investigation, is accused of signing a contract “unfavourable” to FIFA concerning tv rights and of making that so-called “disloyal payment” of SFr2 million to Platini in 2011 for work carried out by the Frenchman nine years previously. The case against them both is that the money should have been declared at the time, when Platini was Blatter’s special adviser, instead of only coming to light much later.
Eckert now has to reach a verdict which, as previously revealed by this website, is likely to be multi-year bans which would effectively end the careers of both Blatter and Platini in world football.
An ethics committee statement said: “The investigatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee has submitted its final reports containing requests for sanctions against Joseph Blatter and Michel Platini to the adjudicatory chamber chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert.
“The final report regarding Joseph S. Blatter was submitted by Robert Torres, the report regarding Michel Platini was submitted by Vanessa Allard. For reasons linked to privacy rights and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, the chamber will not publish details of the concluded reports and the requested sanctions against the two officials.”
A spokesman for Eckert added: “The adjudicatory chamber of the independent ethics committee chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert has today received the final reports concerning the investigations against Joseph S. Blatter and Michel Platini carried out by the investigatory chamber.
“The adjudicatory chamber will study the reports carefully and decide in due course about whether to institute formal adjudicatory proceedings against Joseph S. Blatter and Michel Platini.”
Platini, who claims the payment was “valid compensation” as part of an oral agreement, was odds-on favourite to succeed Blatter in February next year until he became engulfed in football’s worst ever scandal that exploded last May with that long list of corruption indictments published by the US justice authorities. The Frenchman is one of six candidates to take over from Blatter but no integrity check will be carried out on him until his case is resolved.
Far from moving into the most powerful seat in world football, he now faces the ignominy of being stripped of his UEFA presidency and plunged into the political wilderness, leaving a massive void at the helm of European football’s governing body.
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