Blatter and Platini banned from football for 16 years

Photo: Joseph ‘Sepp’ Blatter along with Michel Platini have both been given eight years bans from football by the FIFA Ethis committee. (AP)

Disgraced FIFA President Joseph ‘Sepp’ Blatter and UEFA President Michel Platini were both given respective eight year bans from football by the FIFA Ethics Committee on Monday.

They were found guilty of breaches surrounding a £1.3m ($2m) “disloyal payment” made to Platini in 2011.

Blatter who is now 79 years old would be able to return to football administration at age 87 which effectively ends his career in football, however Platini is only 60 years old and is expected to return to football administration at the end of his ban.

In addition to the immediate ban, both men have been duly fined. Blatter was fined £33,700 ($40,000) and 60-year-old Frenchman Platini £54,000 ($80,000).

Both men have denied any wrong doing and Blatter has already appealed the ban. The Swiss national is prepared to go all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) to have the ban overturned.

Platini, is yet to file an appeal, but is expected to do so.

Meanwhile, Blatter was quoted as saying that “I will fight for me and for FIFA,” in his response to the outcome of the hearing.

Unless the ban is overturned, the man who has presided over the most powerful position in sports since 1998 will leave in disgrace, despite all the work that he has done to take the sport to the world.