FIFA bans Blatter, Platini from football for eight years

Suspended FIFA President Sepp Blatter has announced that he will appeal against his eight-year ban from football earlier on Monday.

FIFA’s ethics committee banned its own president and European football UEFA’s President Michel Platini for eight years from all football-related activities. 

Proceedings against the two men were primarily related to a payment of two million Swiss francs (around $2 million) transferred in Feb. 2011 from FIFA to Platini, the governing body said in a statement.

"We [will] go immediately once again to the FIFA appeal committee, we [will] go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport," Blatter told a press conference in Zurich.

Following this decision, Platini cannot be a candidate in the FIFA presidential election scheduled for Feb. 26 next year.

In addition, Blatter and Platini were fined 50,000 francs ($50,200) and 80,000 francs respectively ($80,332).

FIFA went into crisis in May when police swooped on Baur Au Lac hotel in Zurich to arrest senior members of football’s world governing body in a corruption investigation which has rocked the sport.

Blatter is also under investigation by Swiss authorities in a separate inquiry.

Anadolu Agency