FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter (L) shakes hands with UEFA president Michel Platini during the 65th FIFA Congress at Hallenstadion on May 29, 2015 in Zurich, Switzerland. (Photo : Getty Images/Philipp Schmidli)
An in-house FIFA appeal committee comprising members from various football federations, who voted for the new president of the global soccer body on Friday, reduced the eight-year ban clamped on outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter and suspended UEFA chief Michel Platini by two years.
However, the committee headed by Bermuda's Larry Mussendern, who is campaigning to win a vote in May to become FIFA CONCACAF president and FIFA vice-president, upheld the ban on both Blatter and Platini from all football-related activities, Latin Times reported.
Blatter and Platini were found guilty of breaches involving a $2m (£1.3m) "disloyal payment." However, both have denied being involved in any wrongdoing and now decided to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. They have argued that the additional salary was paid to Platini as a part of a verbal deal that the former French soccer team captain received the amount for serving as adviser to FIFA president from 1999-2002.
"The appeal committee considered that Mr. Platini's and Mr. Blatter's activities and the services they had rendered to FIFA, UEFA and football in general over the years should deserve appropriate recognition as a mitigating factor," FIFA said in a statement.
According to Platini, he asked for a salary of 1 million Swiss francs when he was approached to work for Blatter, after he was elected the president of the football body in 1998. Even Blatter confirmed that they entered into a contract with Platini for 300,000 Swiss francs, the amount paid to the then FIFA secretary general.
Meanwhile, former Argentina great Diego Maradona has demanded that Blatter and Platini ought to have been given life imprisonment instead of six-year bans from soccer, Reuters reported. "It seems like the FIFA ethics committee was wrong," Maradona, told Reuters TV.
According to the 55-year-old soccer legend, there is enough evidence against the two football administrators that show they have been robbing for so many years. Hence, it would have been appropriate if they were given both life imprisonments. Maradona also described the new FIFA president and UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino as a "traitor" for not supporting former UEFA president Platini.
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