Blatter, Platini ethic hearings within 2 weeks
Print Edition
FACING life bans for corruption, Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini are expected to go before the FIFA ethics committee within two weeks.
A person familiar with the cases says the hearings should take place from December 16-18 in Zurich. Verdicts are expected within days. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the information has not been made public.
Blatter and Platini face separate hearings before the ethics court led by German judge Joachim Eckert. Both are serving 90-day interim bans over Platini’s US$2 million payment from FIFA that Blatter approved in 2011 as backdated salary. They deny wrongdoing.
Platini’s Paris-based lawyer, Thibaut d’Ales, said last month that FIFA ethics prosecutors requested a life ban for the UEFA president.
The 60-year-old Frenchman was until recently the favorite to take over football’s world governing body until his ban that has ruled the one-time France international player out of the race for the FIFA presidency to be decided in the election on February 26.
The investigation, alongside a US bribery inquiry and a Swiss probe into the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, has plunged FIFA into its worst-ever crisis. Soccer bosses from across South and Central America were among 16 people charged on Thursday by the US with multi-million-dollar bribery schemes for marketing and broadcast rights, bringing the total number of indictments so far to 41 in a probe spanning dozens of countries.
Platini has appealed against his suspension at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with a source close to the case saying that decision will be taken “in the coming days”.
Blatter’s lawyers have not indicated whether or not the suspended FIFA chief has appealed against his own suspension before the CAS. He has 21 days to make an appeal, with the deadline falling around December 9.
Package of reforms
Meanwhile, a package of reforms proposed by FIFA to clean up the scandal-plagued governing body was angrily criticized yesterday by Europe’s powerful clubs, who said it would increase frustration among the sport’s stakeholders.
The European Club Association, which represents more than 200 clubs, including top sides like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, said its members were “not prepared to be further ignored” and were leaving “all options open”.
On a day when the FIFA crisis deepened, it announced a package of planned reforms, including limits to the number of terms top officials can serve and a new separation of policy and management positions, with a 36-member FIFA council replacing the 25-member executive committee.
“ECA will now take the required time to assess how it wishes to position itself in relation to this latest development, leaving all options open,” it said in a statement yesterday.
Nearly all the world’s top players are with European teams. FIFA’s international competitions depend on a calendar, agreed between FIFA and the clubs, which allow them to be released for their national teams on certain dates.
If the clubs were to pull out of those deals, it could throw international football into chaos.
ECA was particularly angry that a proposal had been discussed to increase the four-yearly World Cup to 40 teams from the current 32, even though the idea has now been put on hold.
The proposal had been made “without prior consultation with the clubs (in full knowledge of the impact this will have on the professional club game)”, said ECA, which is chaired by former West Germany forward Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
This was proof “that the proposed reforms are not at the required standard allowing for a new and modern FIFA”.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
