FIFA Bans Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini From Soccer for Eight Years

ZURICH—Two of the most powerful men in world soccer, Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, were handed eight-year bans from the game on Monday for conflict of interest, making them the highest-profile casualties of the sprawling investigations into corruption and ethical wrongdoing at FIFA.

For Mr. Blatter, the organization’s longtime president, the ban imposed by FIFA’s Ethics Committee effectively rules out the 79-year-old from any future role in soccer. He said Monday he would launch an appeal immediately.

Mr. Platini, the head of European soccer’s governing body, will also appeal, first at FIFA, and eventually at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The committee said Mr. Platini, who had been the front-runner to succeed Mr. Blatter next year, “failed to act with complete credibility and integrity.”

The committee also fined Mr. Blatter 50,000 francs and Mr. Platini 80,000 francs.

In a long, rambling news conference after the verdict, Mr. Blatter struck a defiant tone. Flanked by his daughter Corinne and his aideThomas Renggli, he also showed his flair for the dramatic. As he walked away from the cameras, Mr. Blatter’s closing remark was, “I’ll be back.”

Earlier on, inside a packed auditorium at the organization’s former headquarters in the hills above the city, Mr. Blatter vowed to challenge the verdict as long as he could. He even refused to recognize the ethics committee’s authority to sanction the FIFA president.

“To say that it’s a good day for me or for FIFA would be totally wrong,” he said “I will fight. I will fight for me and I will fight for FIFA. Suspended eight years for what?”

The central issue is what Swiss authorities called a “disloyal payment” of 2 million Swiss Francs ($2.02 million) from FIFA to Mr. Platini in 2011. Mr. Platini has acknowledged receiving the payment but denies any impropriety. He has said that the funds were his salary for advisory he work carried at FIFA out between 1998 and 2002 at the behest of Mr. Blatter—on a handshake.

After Swiss authorities announced in October that they were investigating the transaction, Messrs. Blatter and Platini received provisional 90-day suspensions. Both tried unsuccessfully to have them overturned.

“Neither in his written statement nor in his personal hearing was Mr. Blatter able to demonstrate another legal basis for this payment,” the Ethics Committee said in a statement. “His assertion of an oral agreement was determined as not convincing and was rejected by the chamber.”

In their absence, FIFA has been run by interim President Issa Hayatou of Cameroon and interim Secretary-General Markus Kattner under the guidance of U.S. law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. FIFA will hold a special election to choose Mr. Blatter’s successor on Feb. 26. UEFA’s acting president, meanwhile, is Angel Maria Villar of Spain.

Messrs. Blatter and Platini had their cases heard by the Ethics Committee at FIFA headquarters last week. Mr. Platini chose to boycott his hearing in protest on Friday, but Mr. Blatter attended his on Thursday, spending more than eight hours in the building.

“I’m sorry that I am still somewhere a punching ball,” Mr. Blatter said.

ENLARGE

FIFA’s Sepp Blatter, center, UEFA President Michel Platini, left, and German soccer legend Franz Beckenbauer, right, arrive for a gala match in 2007. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Mr. Platini, a decorated former midfielder for the French national team, rose to prominence as a soccer administrator when he led the organizing committee for the 1998 World Cup in France. In 2002, he joined FIFA’s ruling executive committee, where he became a close friend and associate of Mr. Blatter. Five years later, he was elected president of UEFA, European soccer’s governing body.

But the relationship between Messrs. Platini and Blatter soured in recent years. Mr. Platini said it was because of Mr. Blatter’s U-turn on seeking the FIFA presidency again in 2015 instead of stepping aside.

Mr. Blatter’s camp tells a different story. The longtime FIFA president lost faith in Mr. Platini following the Frenchman’s sudden decision in 2010 to vote for Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup, according to a person with knowledge of Mr. Blatter’s thinking. Mr. Blatter has said he favored the U.S. candidacy.

Monday’s verdict was only the latest chapter of FIFA’s bleakest year. It began with thearrests of seven FIFA officials and other soccer executives at a ritzy hotel here on May 27 and, within days, led to Mr. Blatter’s announcement that he was stepping down.

Now, with appeals on the way, the process is certain to drag through the winter.

“I was very sad. But now I’m not sad anymore,” Mr. Blatter said. “Now I’m combative, because it can’t go on like this. After 40 years, this won’t do.”

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