FIFA panel recommends 90-day suspension for President Sepp Blatter

Members of FIFA’s ethics committee, meeting secretly in Zurich this week, have recommended a 90-day suspension for embattled President Sepp Blatter.

The news on Wednesday came as the Swiss attorney general is conducting a criminal probe against the five-term leader of the world soccer body.

One case involves allegations that Blatter assigned TV rights for two World Cups to Jack Warner, the former president of CONCACAF, for $600,000. Warner then resold the broadcast rights for $20 million. In another, authorities are investigating a $2-million payment made to UEFA President Michel Platini.

See the most-read stories in Sports this hour >>

Blatter, 79, has denied any wrongdoing and said he will not leave his post until an election to choose his replacement is held in February.

Blatter associate Klaus Stoehlker, who has no role at FIFA, noted to the Associated Press and other media outlets that the ethics committee’s investigatory chamber had made a provisional recommendation of suspension for soccer’s most powerful official.

“Blatter has heard that from several sources,” Stoehlker said. “He has not got any message from the committee ... and he is perfectly under control. He is going to the office tomorrow.”

Abdoulaye Makhtar Diop, a Senegalese member of the executive committee’s adjudicatory chamber, said earlier in a statement that cases involving Blatter and Platini were being discussed in Zurich this week.

FIFA ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert will make the final decision on the fates of Blatter and Platini, who were questioned as part of the Swiss criminal investigation last month. Blatter is a suspect but Platini was questioned as something between a witness and an accused person in connection with a payment he received from FIFA in 2011.

Platini is seeking to succeed Blatter but his election prospects could be thwarted by receiving the maximum 90-day suspension from FIFA, with an Oct. 26 deadline for candidacies to be submitted and approved.

If Blatter was forced from power before the election, senior vice president Issa Hayatou would become interim FIFA leader. However, the longtime Confederation of African Football president from Cameroon has his own checkered past.

Hayatou was reprimanded in 2011 by the International Olympic Committee, of which he is also a member, for receiving $20,000 from a sports marketing company in a FIFA kickback scandal. He was also accused by British lawmakers of a promised million-dollar payment from Qatar for its 2022 World Cup bid. Both Hayatou and Qatar have denied wrongdoing.

MORE ON FIFA CORRUPTION SCANDAL

FIFA ban of Jack Warner may be part of larger strategy

What the criminal investigation of Sepp Blatter means for FIFA

With Blatter under investigation, can FIFA find a leader untainted by its corruption scandal?