The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has discountenanced the appeal of former FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, against a six-year ban for ethics violations.
According to the three-man panel, "Blatter breached the FIFA code of ethics since the payment amounted to an undue gift as it had no contractual basis. The Panel further found that Blatter unlawfully awarded contributions to Platini under the FIFA Executive Committee retirement scheme which also amounted to an undue gift.’’
The
ban was imposed amid the biggest corruption scandal to shake the
world football body,
CAS
ruled that Blatter had authorised payments to Michel Platini, then
the European football body’s president, worth over $2 million which
amounted to “undue gifts’’.
It
said this had therefore violated FIFA’s code of ethics.
Blatter,
who led FIFA for 17 years, explained that
he was “disappointed but not shattered’’.
He
resigned in June 2015 after several dozen football officials,
including FIFA executive committee members and former members, had
been indicted in the U.S. on graft charges.
They
were indicted along with two sports marketing firms.
The
80-year-old Swiss was not among those indicted, but became embroiled
in scandal when he was banned from all football-related activities
the following December by FIFA’s Ethics Committee.
He
was banned along with Platini, then the UEFA president.
The
two men were banned, initially for eight years, over a payment of 2
million Swiss francs ($1.98 million) which FIFA made to Platini in
2011, with Blatter’s approval.
The
duo had claimed the payment was for work done a decade earlier.
The
bans were reduced to six years by FIFA’s appeals committee in
February.
Both
men denied wrongdoing and Blatter said the payment related to a
verbal agreement.
Swiss
prosecutors are now investigating Blatter on suspicion of criminal
mismanagement and misappropriation of funds over the payment, which
they describe as “disloyal’’.
He
has however not been charged.
In
September, FIFA’s Ethics Committee said it was investigating
Blatter and two other former leading FIFA officials over the salaries
and bonuses they had received while in office.
Those
probes come against a broader background of suspicion over the FIFA
Executive Committee’s allocation of FIFA’s showpiece event, the
four-yearly World Cup, to Russia and Qatar.
They
were awarded under Blatter’s watch, and Swiss authorities are
investigating whether bribes were paid to help secure the hosting
rights.
Blatter,
who must also pay a fine of 50,000 Swiss francs, told Reuters after
the CAS ruling: “I have accepted it now. I have got to the stage
where I have struggled enough, I have worked enough.’’
“I
still have contact with people in football and heads of state,” he
said.
“We
have developed football all around the world, we have made football
part of the economy and it also has some political influence …
“I
do hope that at a future FIFA Congress, somebody will stand up and
say “perhaps president Blatter is not so bad’.’’
CAS
cut Platini’s ban to four years in May but said on Monday that
Blatter had not requested a reduction.
“In
any event, the panel determined that the sanction imposed was not
disproportionate.’’
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