FIFA’s ethics panel says it had formally given its outgoing President Sepp Blatter and the UEFA President, Michel Platini the reasons for their eight-year ban from the game, information both men could use in their appeal.
“After receiving the grounds for the decisions, both officials may lodge an appeal with the FIFA Appeal Committee,” the adjudicatory chamber of the ethics committee said in a statement over the weekend, without giving details on the information it sent.
The move came too late for Platini who said he had abandoned plans to appeal against the ban in time to rejoin the race for the FIFA presidency and withdrew his candidacy.
Blatter and Platini were banned last December following a widening crackdown on FIFA top officials implicated in the worst corruption scandal in the history of the world football’s governing body.
Blatter and Platini were both banned over a payment of 2 million Swiss francs (1.4 million pounds) made to the Frenchman by FIFA with Blatter’s approval in 2011 for work done a decade earlier.
The committee said the payment, made at a time when Blatter was seeking re-election, lacked transparency and presented conflicts of interest, though both men denied wrongdoing.
By Olisemeka Obeche