Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, since 1998, and Michel Platini, the president of European soccer, were banned from the sport for eight years on Monday due to ethics violations.
This ban is not a surprise. Blatter and Platini — who were also fined 50,000 and 80,000 Swiss francs, respectively — have been provisionally suspended from FIFA since October, while the organization’s independent ethics committee investigated, among other allegations of corruption, a suspicious $2 million payment that Blatter gave Platini in 2011.
Blatter has insisted that the payment was simply a “gentlemen’s agreement” and back pay for salary owed. However, the transaction was undocumented and came just before Blatter began campaigning for a fourth term as president of FIFA.
“Neither in his written statement nor in his personal hearing was Mr. Blatter able to demonstrate another legal basis for this payment,” the committee said in a statement. “His assertion of an oral agreement was determined as not convincing and was rejected by the chamber.”
“I am ashamed that the committee goes against the evidence presented,” Blatter said on Monday. “I have never cheated with money.” Platini called the decision a “true mockery.”
Last Thursday Blatter presented an eight-hour defense to the ethics committee, while on Friday, Platini simply had his lawyer deliver a message: “I am already judged, I am already condemned.”
After the ethics committee deliberated all weekend and announced the suspension on Monday morning in Switzerland, the 79-year-old Blatter gave an animated and lengthy press conference in Zurich where he apologized — not for his actions, but rather for being a “punching ball.”
“I am sorry for FIFA, which I have served for more than 40 years, and sorry for the 400-plus FIFA staff. But I’m also sorry about me. How I am treated in this world of humanity,” he said. The embattled figure ended the 51-minute press conference by stating, “I’ll be back.”
Blatter, Platini, and all of FIFA have been under intense scrutiny lately due to accusations of human rights violations, discrimination, and overall corruption. The United States Department of Justice has spent years investigating the organization, and have arrested and charged over 30 FIFA officials in two separate raids in May and November.
“If we had awarded the World Cup in 2022 to the USA, we would not be here,” Blatter said during his press conference.
According to Sam Borden of the New York Times, Blatter and Platini are expected to request an expedited appeal of the suspension, in hopes that they will be cleared by the time FIFA congress has a special meeting in February — Blatter wants to host the meeting where his successor will be elected, and Platini still has hopes of being named the next president. But Borden said that it is unlikely that an appeal will be granted.