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Blatter and Platini bans cut to six years by Fifa for ‘services to football’
Source: The Guardian
Blatter and Platini bans cut to six years by Fifa for ‘services to football’
• Bans from all football-related activity reduced from eight years
• Fifa appeal committee throws out Blatter’s and Platini’s appeals
Owen Gibson in Zurich
Wednesday 24 February 2016 18.03 GMT
Fifa’s call for its members to embrace reform as Friday’s presidential election looms has been undermined by its own appeal committee, which has reduced bans for Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini because of their “services to football”.
The Fifa appeal committee ruled that the bans handed down to the pair by the ethics committee in December over a £1.3m “disloyal payment” from the disgraced Fifa president to the Frenchman were too onerous and should be reduced from eight years to six years.
The decision means that neither Blatter, the Fifa president for 18 years, nor his one time heir apparent will be able to stage a Lazarus-like return before Friday’s extraordinary congress. But the reasoning for the decision by the appeal committee will be seen as an embarrassment at a time when Fifa is trying to implement a string of reforms that it hopes will maintain its victim status in the eyes of the US Department of Justice and the Swiss Attorney General.
The appeal committee, chaired by Larry Mussenden, ruled that some “strong mitigating factors” were not taken into account by the ethics body. “In this sense, among 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.”
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• Bans from all football-related activity reduced from eight years
• Fifa appeal committee throws out Blatter’s and Platini’s appeals
Owen Gibson in Zurich
Wednesday 24 February 2016 18.03 GMT
Fifa’s call for its members to embrace reform as Friday’s presidential election looms has been undermined by its own appeal committee, which has reduced bans for Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini because of their “services to football”.
The Fifa appeal committee ruled that the bans handed down to the pair by the ethics committee in December over a £1.3m “disloyal payment” from the disgraced Fifa president to the Frenchman were too onerous and should be reduced from eight years to six years.
The decision means that neither Blatter, the Fifa president for 18 years, nor his one time heir apparent will be able to stage a Lazarus-like return before Friday’s extraordinary congress. But the reasoning for the decision by the appeal committee will be seen as an embarrassment at a time when Fifa is trying to implement a string of reforms that it hopes will maintain its victim status in the eyes of the US Department of Justice and the Swiss Attorney General.
The appeal committee, chaired by Larry Mussenden, ruled that some “strong mitigating factors” were not taken into account by the ethics body. “In this sense, among 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.”
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/feb/24/sepp-blatter-michel-platini-bans-cut-fifa