FIFA President Sepp Blatter and UEFA President Michel Platini will "find out within days whether they face being banned from football for years to come," after FIFA’s ethics committee concluded investigations into the pair, according to Owen Gibson of the London GUARDIAN. The investigatory arm of the committee confirmed on Saturday that "it had finished its probe and recommended sanctions to the adjudicatory arm" chaired by the German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert. It is understood that Eckert will summon Blatter and Platini to a formal hearing within days, "at which point they will be notified of the case against them and the proposed sanctions." The investigatory arm is believed to be "seeking bans of several years" over what Swiss law terms a “disloyal payment” of £1.35M made by Blatter to Platini in '11, weeks before the former was re-elected as FIFA’s president. Both have acknowledged that there was no written contract but said that "they believed their verbal contract was legal under Swiss law." However, Swiss law "places a five-year time limit on such payments." The fact that the payments did not feature in FIFA’s accounts is "believed to form part of the case against them" (GUARDIAN, 11/21). In London, Teddy Cutler reported a "lengthy ban would almost certainly mean the end" of Platini’s FIFA presidential campaign. The former European footballer of the year remains a candidate for the election to be held on Feb. 26, "but until his ban has been lifted he cannot be vetted, as all the other presidential candidates have been." UEFA prepared for this scenario by entering UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino into the race "to succeed Blatter." Platini’s lawyer, Thibaud d’Ales, was "quick to respond to the conclusion of the investigation," claiming FIFA had "lost all credibility." D'Ales said, "It's farcical. It would be laughable if we were not talking about the future of the biggest non-governmental institution in the world" (LONDON TIMES, 11/21).
DONE NO WRONG: In N.Y., Rebecca R. Ruiz reported both Blatter and Platini have "maintained they have done no wrong." Blatter’s lawyers "centered their appeal to FIFA on a lack of evidence," charging that the organization had assumed Blatter "was guilty rather than presuming he was innocent." FIFA’s code of ethics prohibits people of the same nationality from investigating one another, so individuals who are Swiss, like Blatter, or French, like Platini, were "recused from investigating them." The investigation into Blatter was conducted by Robert Torres, the chief justice of Guam and a member of FIFA’s ethics committee. The investigation into Platini was conducted by Vanessa Allard, a lawyer from the Cayman Islands (N.Y. TIMES, 11/21). REUTERS' Brian Homewood reported the investigatory chamber "did not say why it was recommending sanctions nor what those sanctions should be." The FIFA ethics committee said in a statement, "For reasons linked to privacy rights and presumption of innocence until proven guilty, the chamber will not publish details of the concluded reports and the requested sanctions against the two officials." The adjudicatory chamber said in a separate statement that it would decide whether to open formal proceedings and, if necessary, on sanctions "in due course." The ethics committee "appears to have taken a tougher line against offenders in the last year," handing out a series of "long-term bans" from football-related activities -- which includes playing, coaching and administrative roles in the sport (REUTERS, 11/21).
GERMAN FA: REUTERS' Karolos Grohmann reported former World Cup-winning player and coach and 2006 World Cup Organizing Committee President Franz Beckenbauer is "unhappy" with the German FA's (DFB) response to his offer of a "personal" discussion with the association. The DFB is "eager for Beckenbauer to provide answers" on several issues including a controversial '05 payment to FIFA and a draft contract with a disgraced former VP at football's governing body. Beckenbauer has rejected allegations of a slush fund to buy votes for Germany's bid but has previously admitted the payment to FIFA had been "a mistake in hindsight." In an interview with Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Beckenbauer said that he had offered a "personal discussion" with DFB bosses who did not respond to his request. Beckenbauer: "When you know each other so long and then you do not get any reaction (to my letter) and learn everything from the television, then where are we?" (REUTERS, 11/20).
