Judgment day for FIFA President Sepp Blatter and UEFA President Michel Platini "dawns Monday when FIFA's ethics court is expected to ban the scandal-scarred" football body's most powerful leaders, according to Graham Dunbar of the AP. Blatter and "his one-time intended successor face being kicked out of the world's favorite sport for at least several years" over a $2M payment Blatter approved for Platini in '11. Both deny wrongdoing "yet a conflict of interest in managing FIFA money" -- by agreeing the payment without telling executive committee colleagues -- "is a likely basis for guilty verdicts" in rulings due to be published Monday morning. Bans "of around 10 years are possible, judging by recent FIFA ethics committee sanctions in cases not involving financial misconduct." Blatter and Platini, through his lawyers, "already promised appeals that would need to be processed urgently ahead of FIFA's presidential election on Feb. 26." Both "are expected to be defiant if found guilty." Blatter, who turns 80 in March, "wants a FIFA swansong by hosting the election congress in Zurich and being made honorary president by the 209 member federations." The 60-year-old Platini "wants to clear his name, pass a FIFA integrity check and be declared an official candidate in the election he was previously favored to win." His campaign "stalled since being quizzed on Sept. 25 in a Swiss federal investigation of suspected criminal mismanagement at FIFA" (AP, 12/20).
PLATINI SPEAKS OUT: REUTERS' Mark Trevelyan reported Platini has "accused a FIFA ethics committee of denying him a fair hearing on the corruption allegations against him and finding him guilty in advance." Platini "declined to attend a meeting of the ethics committee on Friday, instead sending a statement which was read out by his lawyer and released to the media on Saturday." Platini said, "I decided not to come before you to present my explanations in person. For one reason, and one only: I've already been judged, I've already been found guilty." In the statement read by his lawyer, Platini said a series of comments by FIFA officials, including anonymous briefings to the press, "had made clear that the ethics committee had already determined his guilt." Platini: "I no longer have confidence in the disciplinary bodies of FIFA. They have shown their bias, their prejudices, their inability to respect confidentiality, the presumption of innocence and the rights of the defence" (REUTERS, 12/19).
