By Andrew Warshaw in Zurich
February 25 – Any chance of Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini making a triumphant fist-pumping return to football at Friday’s eagerly anticipated FIFA electoral congress were crushed today after their respective bans for breaking ethics rules were upheld on appeal.
FIFA’s appeals committee reduced the punishment meted out to football’s two most high-profile administrators from eight to six years because of their status and contribution to the game but that will be of little comfort to the outgoing FIFA president and the UEFA chief who was a shoo-in to succeed his one-time mentor only a few weeks ago.
The fact that the appeals committee took longer than expected to come to their decision suggested they might have been considering overturning the bans. But in the end they agreed for the most part with ethics judges who had found the pair guilty of several breaches surrounding a SFr2 million “disloyal payment” to Platini authorised by Blatter and paid in 2011 including conflict of interest and dereliction of duty.
Both had been optimistic of clearing their names when they emerged from last week’s appeal hearings but ethics rulings rarely get scrapped and Blatter and Platini now find themselves out of the game until the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
A FIFA statement read: “The FIFA appeal committee, chaired by Larry Mussenden (Bermuda), has partially confirmed the decisions taken by the adjudicatory chamber of the independent ethics committee on 17 and 18 December 2015 regarding Joseph S Blatter and Michel Platini respectively, whose bans have been reduced from eight to six years.”
Blatter, who had hoped against hope to bow out of FIFA by personally handing over to his successor on Friday, immediately pledged to take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and Platini is expected to follow. Blatter must also pay a fine of 50,000 Swiss francs while Platini has been ordered to pay SFr80,000. Both sums are due within 30 days.
Blatter said in a statement through his spokesman: “I am very disappointed by the appeal committee of FIFA and I will take it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.”
Platini, for whom the ban is far more damaging given that his star had been very much on the rise but who has now seen his ambitions crushed, was even more critical of the appeals decision.
“The reasons given against me are baseless, trumped up and surreal, given the facts and explanations that I gave during the hearing of the appeals board,” he charged.
“This decision is in reality a political decision taken by the FIFA administration. I am the victim of a system that had only one goal: To prevent me from becoming FIFA president in order to protect certain interests that I was about to bring into question.”
But if truth be told, both sides ended up losing. In what could be interpreted as a snub to ethics judges for not treating Blatter and Platini with sufficient respect, the appeals committee stated that “activities and services rendered to FIFA, UEFA and football” was a mitigating factor in its decision since both of them “deserve appropriate recognition.”
Moreover a counter-appeal lodged by ethics investigators for life bans to be imposed for what they fervently believe was a case of corruption was thrown out. It now remains to be seen whether they, too, go to CAS to try and secure a longer penalty than six years which officially expires in October 2021.
FIFA statement in full:
“The FIFA appeal committee, chaired by Larry Mussenden (Bermuda), has partially confirmed the decisions taken by the adjudicatory chamber of the independent ethics committee on 17 and 18 December 2015 regarding Joseph S Blatter and Michel Platini respectively, whose bans have been reduced from eight to six years.
Following the hearings of Mr Platini and Mr Blatter held in Zurich on 15 and 16 February 2016 respectively, the appeal committee has decided as follows:
Mr Platini’s and Mr Blatter’s appeals are dismissed in respect of infringements of art. 13 (general rules of conduct), art. 15 (loyalty), art. 19 (conflict of interests) and art. 20 (offering and accepting gifts and other benefits) of the FIFA code of ethics, as established by the adjudicatory chamber. The appeal committee concurred with the findings of the adjudicatory chamber of the ethics committee in the sense that the evidence available in the present case is not sufficient to establish a breach of article 21 of the FIFA code of ethics (bribery and corruption). Consequently, the appeal lodged by the investigatory chamber for a life ban from all football-related activity was also dismissed.
While agreeing with the principles and arguments presented by the adjudicatory chamber in its calculation of the sanction, the appeal committee determined that some strong mitigating factors for Mr Platini and Mr Blatter were not taken into account when establishing the sanction. In this sense, amongst others, the appeal committee considered that Mr Platini’s and Mr Blatter’s activities and the services they had rendered to FIFA, UEFA and football in general over the years should deserve appropriate recognition as a mitigating factor. Thus, after carefully analysing and taking into consideration the exceptional mitigating circumstances of the cases, it was determined that a one-year reduction of the five-year ban for a breach of art. 20 of the FCE was proper, and similarly a one-year reduction of the three-year ban for the other breaches was also proper. In summary:
Michel Platini is banned from taking part in any football-related activity (administrative, sports or other) at national and international level for a period of six (6) years as from 8 October 2015, in accordance with art. 6 par. 1h) of the FIFA code of ethics in conjunction with art. 22 of the FIFA disciplinary code. Furthermore, Mr Platini shall pay a fine in the amount of CHF 80,000 within 30 days of notification of the present decision.
Joseph S Blatter is banned from taking part in any football-related activity (administrative, sports or other) at national and international level for a period of six (6) years as from 8 October 2015, in accordance with art. 6 par. 1h) of the FIFA code of ethics in conjunction with art. 22 of the FIFA disciplinary code. Mr Blatter shall pay a fine in the amount of CHF 50,000 within 30 days of notification of the present decision.”
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