FIFA Ethics Committee Officially Hand Blatter and Platini 90-Day Suspensions

October 8, 2015

By Christian Radnedge

FIFA president Sepp Blatter and executive committee member Michel Platini have been banned from football for 90 days by the organisation’s ethics committee.

Secretary General Jerome Valcke is also confirmed to have been suspended for 90 days.

The news was confirmed by the ethics committee after meetings in Switzerland on Thursday chaired by ethics judge Hans Joachim Eckert.

Presidential candidate Chung Mong-joon has also been punished by the committee, receiving a six year ban from football for allegations relating to payments he made in the 2018-2022 World Cup bidding process.

The South Korean has also been fined CHF 100,000.

UEFA president Michel Platini had protested the reports he was being investigated and faced a ban in a statement before the decision. In it, he also said he had submitted his paperwork to stand for the FIFA presidency in February.

Blatter’s suspension means he would miss the executive committee meeting in December to set the agenda for the extraordinary elective FIFA congress in February.

Vice President Issa Hayatou is the next most senior FIFA official who would inherit the presidency on an interim basis.

The FIFA Ethics Committee statement said: “The adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee chaired by Hans Joachim Eckert has provisionally banned FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter, UEFA President and FIFA Vice-President Michel Platini, and FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke (who has already been put on leave by his employer FIFA) for a duration of 90 days.

“The duration of the bans may be extended for an additional period not exceeding 45 days. The former FIFA Vice-President Chung Mong-joon has been banned for six years and fined CHF 100,000. During this time, the above individuals are banned from all football activities on a national and international level. The bans come into force immediately.

“The grounds for these decisions are the investigations that are being carried out by the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee. The chairman of the chamber is Dr Cornel Borbély. The investigation into Joseph S. Blatter is being carried out by Robert Torres, the investigation into Michel Platini by Vanessa Allard.

“The proceedings against the South Korean football official Chung Mong-joon were opened in January 2015 based on findings in the report on the investigation into the bidding process for the 2018/2022 FIFA World Cups.

“He has been found guilty of infringing article 13 (General rules of conduct), article 16 (Confidentiality), article 18 (Duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting), article 41 (Obligation of the parties to collaborate) and article 42 (General obligation to collaborate) of the FIFA Code of Ethics.”

Blatter and Platini have two days to appeal the decision, but will still be suspended until these appeals are heard by FIFA’s appeals committee.

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