Blatter and Platini start appeals journey; first stop FIFA

Blatter and Platini

By Andrew Warshaw
January 11 – Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini have been given the all-clear to launch appeals against their eight-year bans after FIFA’s ethics committee sent them full written reasons for the judgements.

Lawyers for Blatter and Platini needed the documents to take their respective cases to FIFA’s appeals committee and then, if necessary, to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

“The adjudicatory chamber of the independent ethics committee has fulfilled its commitment to provide the grounds for the respective decisions to Mr. Blatter and Mr. Platini within the first half of January 2016 as they had previously been informed,” the committee said in a brief statement.

Platini last week gave up on being a candidate to succeed Blatter on February 26 but is determined to clear his name to retain his presidency of UEFA. Blatter wants to be cleared before the election congress so he can formally hand over to his successor.

Both men deny any wrongdoing but were judged last month to have broken ethics rules on conflicts of interest, breach of loyalty and offering or receiving gifts over the infamous SFr2 million payment made to Platini in 2011 and approved by Blatter for work the Frenchman carried out as a presidential adviser from 1999-2002.

Platini, fighting to save his reputation as well as his administrative career, insists the money was simply the final instalment of a perfectly legitimate process that had been agreed verbally with Blatter. But he failed to explain convincingly to ethics judges why it took nine years for it to be paid.

Platini’s conspiracy theories are increasingly falling on deaf ears. He claims there has been a deliberate ploy to stop him from running for FIFA presidency. But the message behind the ethics committee’s statement is that the judges have done anything but drag their feet. Indeed, it is understood that officials worked through the Christmas and New Year period to provide as much information as quickly possible for both Platini and Blatter to launch their respective appeals.

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