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FIFA extends ban on Blatter until 2028
LAUSANNE, March 24, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – FIFA banned its former president
Sepp Blatter until 2028 on Wednesday after handing him a new suspension of
six years and eight months for receiving huge bonuses.
Former FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke also had his existing
suspension extended by the same amount.
The new bans will only come into force when the current bans on Blatter
and Valcke for corruption, which last till October this year and October
2025, end.
FIFA’s Ethics Committee said it had also fined each man one million Swiss
francs.
Blatter, who is 85, received 23 million Swiss francs ($24.6 million, 20.7
million euros) in “extraordinary bonuses” linked to the 2010 World Cup in
South Africa and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil as well as the Confederations
Cup tournament in Brazil that preceded it, the Ethics Committee said in a
summary of its decision.
Valcke, the 60-year-old Frenchman who was Blatter’s right-hand man during
his 17-year reign at the head of football’s world governing body, received 30
million Swiss francs over the same period, the committee said.
FIFA said Blatter and Valcke had violated the Code of Ethics by “offering
and accepting gifts or other benefits” and through “abuse of position”.
It said in a statement: “The investigations into Messrs Blatter and Valcke
covered various charges, in particular concerning bonus payments in relation
to FIFA competitions that were paid to top FIFA management officials, various
amendments and extensions of employment contracts, as well as reimbursement
by FIFA of private legal costs in the case of Mr Valcke.”
Blatter was forced to stand down as FIFA president in 2015 and was
originally banned by FIFA for eight years, later reduced to six, over ethics
breaches when he was found to have authorised a two-million-euro “disloyal
payment” to former UEFA president Michel Platini.
Valcke was initially banned for 12 years but it was reduced to 10 years on
appeal.
BSS/AFP/BZC/2040HRS