By Andrew Warshaw
November 24 – Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini will learn their respective fates over alleged financial misconduct by the end of December, FIFA’s ethics committee has confirmed.
Ethics investigators have officially called for sanctions to be taken against the pair and the ethics committee’s adjudicatory panel has now announced it has opened formal proceedings against the FIFA president his UEFA counterpart after receiving the final report into the conduct of arguably the two most powerful men in world football.
In a statement, the adjudicatory chamber led by German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert said it had “studied the reports carefully and decided to institute formal proceedings against the two officials.”
” For reasons linked to privacy rights and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, the adjudicatory chamber will not publish details of the sanctions requested by the investigatory chamber in its final reports.”
“In the course of the proceedings, both parties will be invited to submit positions including any evidence… and they may request a hearing. The adjudicatory chamber intends to come to a decision in both cases during the month of December.
The announcement confirms the time scale of proceedings against Blatter and Platini as revealed by Insideworldfootball.
Last week, both had their respective appeals against provisionary 90-day suspensions turned down and have gone to the Court of Arbitration for Sport though any verdict could now be superceded by a more lengthy ban.
The initial sanctions were handed down after it emerged that Swiss authorities were investigating a two million Swiss franc payment made by FIFA to Platini for work that was carried out nine years previously.
It is understood the case against both Blatter and his would-be successor cover four potential breaches of the ethics code including conflict of interest and falsification of accounts. Platini wants his suspension overturned, his case heard quickly and his ban lifted so he can still run for FIFA president in February. But both powerbrokers face seven-year bans from football if found guilty which, of course, could also be legally challenged.
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