Fifa’s ethics watchdog on Thursday suspended Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini for 90 days in a sensational new blow to the football’s governing body.
Fifa Secretary General Jerome Valcke, already asked to leave the world body over a ticketing scandal, was also suspended for the same period.
Although sources in the Fifa said the bans were “provisional”, the move certainly signalled the end of Fifa president Blatter and dealt a big blow to UEFA chief Platini’s hopes to take over. Besides the three, the ethics committee also banned Chung Mong-Joon, a South Korean tycoon and a candidate for the Fifa’s top post, for six years. The scion of the Hyundai family was also fined 1,00,000 Swiss Francs.
The four top officials have been banned from all football activities, said a statement, adding the bans come into force with immediate effect.
Fifa said Issa Hayatou of Cameroon will be the acting president. Hayatou is head of the Confederation of African Football and Fifa’s most senior vice president.
The suspensions can be renewed for another 45 days when they end in January. It would thus take the exclusion till just before the Fifa election on February 26.
Blatter and Platini were under immense pressure since Swiss prosecutors began a probe into the veteran Fifa president for criminal mismanagement. Platini was also named in the investigation because of a $2 million payment he received in 2011.
Earlier, he had demanded a probe into the circumstances of the investigation against him.
Chung, on the other hand, was found to have contravened rules while lobbying for South Korea’s bid for the 2022 edition of the Fifa World Cup which was awarded to Qatar.
Chung, however, has threatened to take legal action against the ban decision.
Fifa’s crisis has been mounting since May when the US authorities issued charges against 14 of its officials and sports marketing executives over bribes worth over $150 million given for broadcasting and marketing contracts.
Seven officials were detained at a Zurich hotel just two days ahead of Blatter’s re-election for a fifth term on May 30.
Both Platini and Chung suspect they are victims of a campaign originating from within the Fifa to make bids to become its president unsuccessful.