FIFA reduce Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini bans

UEFA president Michel Platini speaks with FIFA president Sepp Blatter (right) in the stands

Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini have failed in their bids to have their eight-year bans from football scrapped, but it has been reduced.

The duo – in their positions as FIFA and UEFA presidents – had been banned for an ‘irregular payment’ of $2-million done in 2011 for work Platini had supposedly done a decade earlier.

In reducing the bans, the FIFA Appeal Committee acknowledged the work done by the two over the years, with a statement reading: “The FIFA Appeal Committee, chaired by Larry Mussenden (Bermuda), has partially confirmed the decisions taken by the adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee on 17 and 18 December 2015 regarding Joseph S. Blatter and Michel Platini respectively, whose bans have been reduced from eight to six years.

The only options remaining for Blatter and Platini is to take their cases to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne. Kickoff.com