Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini face lifetime FIFA bans: report

An alleged $2 million payment to Michel Platini (r.) could result in a lifetime ban for him as well as Sepp Blatter (l.), according to a report by the Guardian. - AFP Photo/DSK/AFP/Getty Images
Embattled FIFA president Sepp Blatter and FIFA vice president Michel Platini face lifetime bans by the soccer governing body’s ethics committee, according to several published reports.

The lifetime boot of the two powerful executives would follow 90-day bans both men received from the same committee last month. According to a Guardian report, the lifetime ban would be the result of an alleged $2 million payment Platini is accused of accepting in 2011. The Guardian report said that Platini’s attorney had confirmed that the investigatory arm of the ethics committee had recommended a lifetime ban for Platini.
Blatter’s U.S. attorney, Richard Cullen, and his firm, McGuireWoods, declined comment on the reports.
Fourteen FIFA and international sports marketing executives were indicted in late May on corruption and fraud charges, after Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced the unsealing of charging documents in the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s office.
Blatter and Platini were not charged in the federal case. Blatter has been FIFA president since 1998. Swiss authorities announced in late September that they opened a criminal investigation into the 79-year-old Blatter.

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