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FIFA tribunal weighs up Blatter’s fate

Oct 08, 2015
Besieged FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

Besieged FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

The ethics watchdog of scandal-tainted FIFA was locked in talks overnight to decide the fate of world football president Sepp Blatter as attacks on the veteran sports baron mounted.

The ethics committee tribunal was also to decide whether to take action against UEFA leader Michael Platini and former FIFA vice president Chung Mong-Joon, both candidates to take over from Blatter.

As the drama intensified, British media reported the ethics committee had recommended a provisional suspension of 90 days for Blatter.

But Blatter’s lawyers said their client had not been informed of any such action.

“President Blatter has not been notified of any action taken by the FIFA Ethics Committee,” a joint statement issued by his lawyers said, adding Blatter had also not been asked to speak before the disciplinary panel.

“We would expect that the Ethics Committee would want to hear from the President and his counsel, and conduct a thorough review of the evidence, before making any recommendation to take disciplinary action,” the statement from Swiss lawyer Lorenz Erni and New York-based attorney Richard Cullen added.

FIFA has kept the activities of its independent ethics committee cloaked in secrecy in recent months as accusations of corruption have mounted.

But a Senegalese member of the committee’s adjudicatory chamber, FIFA’s highest court, said it started a five-day meeting on Monday, with Blatter and the other two officials on the agenda.

Abdoulaeye Makhtar Diop, a former Senegal sports minister, said in a statement: “The members will focus on the topics of the Swiss Sepp Blatter, FIFA president, the Frenchman Michel Platini, president of UEFA, and the South Korean Chung Mong-Joon.”

FIFA officials refused to comment on the disclosure.

But the world body, fighting off multiple corruption accusations, has been forced to consider suspending its president since Swiss authorities opened an investigation for “criminal mismanagement” against Blatter.

Platini has also been implicated in the investigation because of a $US2 million ($A2.77 million) payment made to the French football legend in 2011.

FIFA’s secretary general Jerome Valcke was suspended last month following press allegations that linked him to the sale of World Cup tickets at inflated prices.

Blatter won a fifth term of office on May 29, despite a major storm over a US inquiry into the football business. But four days later he announced he would stand down when a new election is held on February 26. Despite the new allegations, Blatter said he will carry on until the election.

“I will fight until February 26. For me. And for FIFA,” he told Bunte, a German magazine.

Platini had been favourite to win the election until the Swiss investigation named him. His entourage said that he did not appear before the FIFA commission this week and that he feels he has done nothing wrong.

Platini, Chung and Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, a former FIFA vice president from Jordan, are the main candidates for the election so far.

-AAP

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