FIFA President Sepp Blatter and his would-be successor, UEFA President Michel Platini, "could be banned from football for six years by Christmas," according to Andrew Warshaw of the London DAILY MAIL. FIFA investigators are close to completing their inquiries over the undeclared £1.35M "disloyal payment" made to Platini in '11 "for consultancy work carried out on Blatter's behalf nine years earlier." Blatter and Platini are appealing against 90-day provisional bans, "which can be extended by another 45 days." But FIFA ethics officials "want to wrap up the case as soon as possible," handing over their file to German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert. An ethics source said, "The 90-day decision was just a provisionary measure, a short, sharp shock if you like. We're trying to reach a conclusion by Christmas, so we can have a clear situation before [the presidential election]" (DAILY MAIL, 11/14).
WARNING: The AP reported FIFA VP and Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) President Ángel María Villar has been warned and fined 25,000 Swiss francs ($25,000) "for misconduct during the 2018-2022 World Cup bid investigation." The FIFA ethics committee said that the RFEF president "failed to behave in accordance with the general rules of conduct." The ethics panel also imposed six-month bans on Congolese officials Jean Guy Mayolas and Badji Wantete "for misconduct" (AP, 11/13).
