FIFA chief Sepp Blatter provisionally suspended for 90 days by ethics committee

FIFA's ethics committee has provisionally suspended the governing body’s President Sepp Blatter for 90 days, reports BBCnews.

The report on Wednesday said the decision came after the committee met this week.

Swiss prosecutors last month opened a criminal investigation into Blatter over a TV rights contract he signed and a 2011 payment of 2 million Swiss francs ($2.1 million) to UEFA head Michel Platini, whose status the Swiss attorney general has described as being between a witness and an accused person.

Blatter, who has run FIFA since 1998, and Platini, who wants to succeed him, have both denied any wrongdoing.

The adjudicatory chamber had also suspended seven FIFA officials after police acting on US warrants arrested them in Zurich in May.

It, however, did not decide whether Platini, too, would be suspended, said the BBCnews report.

Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger on Wednesday said that the ethics panel's chamber had gathered on Monday in Zurich, FIFA'S hometown, reported Reuters.

"Everything suggests that decisions on the future of football titans Blatter and Platini are imminent," the Zurich-based paper said without citing a source for its information.

Blatter on Wednesday told a German magazine that the criminal investigation against him was "not correct" and defended his decision not to step down sooner as the FIFA president.
 
"The situation is not pleasant," the weekly, Bunte, quoted him as saying in an interview, reported Reuters.
 
"I am being condemned without there being any evidence for wrongdoing on my part. That is really outrageous."
 
Four days after winning a fifth term, Blatter rocked the world of football in June by saying he would step down in the wake of corruption investigations by the US and Swiss authorities.
 
He remains in office ahead of a scheduled February election.
 
He reiterated in the Bunte interview that he had no plans for an immediate resignation, despite coordinated calls by major sponsors, including Coca-Cola Co, McDonald's and Visa, last week for such a move.
 
"This is just an investigation, not an indictment," he told Bunte. "I will fight until Feb 26. For myself. For FIFA. I am convinced that evil will come to light and good will prevail."

Reuters reported that former Senegal Sports Minister Abdoulaye Diop, a member of the adjudicatory chamber, told Senegal's state news agency APS this week that the commission would address the cases of Blatter, Platini and Fifa presidential hopeful Chung Mong-joon in meetings due to last until Friday.

South Korean Chung said he was facing a 15-year suspension by the ethics committee that has "sabotaged" his election campaign but denied wrongdoing.

Chung told a news conference in Seoul this week that he was being charged with violating six articles from FIFA'S Code of Ethics, which he said stemmed from his "support" for South Korea's 2022 World Cup bid and his proposal to launch a Global Football Fund.