Reports: FIFA to ban Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini for 7 years

Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini are facing likely bans of around seven years when FIFA’s ethics judge delivers his verdict on Monday.

Barring a major surprise, both FIFA president Blatter and UEFA president Platini are expected to be found guilty of ethics code breaches surrounding a £1.3 million “disloyal payment” made to the Frenchman in 2011. German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, the chairman of FIFA’s adjudicatory chamber, held disciplinary hearings for the pair last week and is due to announce his findings and any sanctions on Monday morning.

Ethics investigators accept that proving corruption, which carries a lifetime ban, will be difficult — it was reported on Sunday that Blatter himself had claimed that those charges would be dropped.

Investigators are very confident that other charges including conflict of interest, false accounting and non co-operation — or criticism of the ethics committee — will be proved. A file running to more than 50 pages was submitted by investigators.

Sources with knowledge of the case say sanctions handed down to other FIFA officials previously provide an indication of the level of the bans faced by Platini and Blatter.

In July, Harold Mayne-Nichols. the official who headed the inspection team for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, was banned from all football-related activity for seven years for conflict of interest and breach of confidentiality.

Former FIFA vice-president Chung Mong-Joon from Korea was banned for six years in October for ethics code breaches that he said related to matters such as duty of disclosure, and confidentiality.

Platini boycotted his hearing in Zurich on Friday in protest, claiming a decision already appeared to have been made. His lawyers attended, but it looks as though the Frenchman is already preparing to take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.