Agencies
Geneva, Dec 22: Sepp Blatter is ready to take ‘all legal steps’ to clear his name after he was banned from football for eight years by a FIFA court over ethics violations, his lawyers said Tuesday.
“President Blatter is eager to present his arguments to the appeal committee,” his Zurich-based lawyer Lorenz Erni and Virginia-based counsel Richard Cullen said in a joint statement. “He is prepared to take all legal steps to prevail on the remaining charges and clear his name,” the statement added.
Blatter was provisionally suspended in October after he became the target of a criminal investigation by Swiss prosecutors over a 2 million Swiss franc (USD 2 million) payment he authorised to UEFA president Michel Platini in 2011.
Meanwhile Michel Platini called FIFA’s eight-year ban a ‘kick in the teeth’ but vowed Tuesday to fight on for the presidency of world football’s governing body.
The FIFA vice president and UEFA leader condemned the ethics committee that banned him Monday but said he would ‘fight to clear my name’. “I will fight. But then I’ll take my responsibilities according to what happens,” Platini said in Paris.
However, Platini acknowledged that he may run out of time if the issue is not resolved quickly in his favour. “What is troubling is that I have no certainty about the timetable ahead. As long as I have not had the reasons for the suspension I cannot appeal before the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport),” he said.
Platini insisted there was nothing illegal in the oral contract he said was agreed with Blatter. “I’m struggling to understand. Why? How did we get to this? I did some work, I asked to be paid, I sent an invoice, I was paid, I paid my taxes on that. That was in 2011,” he said. “And here I am, suspended from all football-related activity for eight years.”
