Sepp Blatter and other top officials are suspended

World football’s governing body plunged deeper into turmoil when 3 of the organization’s most powerful figureheads, which included the likes of Sepp Blatter, were suspended amid the corruption investigation launched by Swiss authorities. Sepp Blatter has been president of FIFA for a long time and now Mr. Blatter along with FIFA vice president & head of UEFA Michel Platini and FIFA’s secretary general Jerome Valcke have been provisionally banned from their office for 90 days in total.

Sepp Blatter has been president of FIFA since 1998 and has been a part of the organization since 1975 and now it seems that he has come to the end of the road. He has no plans to go down without a fight however, and has already filed an official appeal against brusque and unfair treatment by FIFA’s independent ethics committee. The appeal clearly indicated that Mr. Blatter has been unfairly treated by the ethics committee and calls for a hearing that will allow his lawyers to argue the merits of the case.

Immediate Suspension

The suspensions have taken effect immediately, and Mr. Platini has also challenged his ban, while UEFA has released a statement that suggests that they will not enforce the ban. There is also a 4^th executive, former FIFA vice president Chung Mong-Joon who has been barred from the sport for 6 years and has been fined $103,000. Mr. Platini has been found guilty in connection with the bidding process for the 2018 and the 2022 World Cups, according to FIFA.

This naturally comes as a massive blow to Mr. Platini, who was the favorite to replace Mr. Blatter as FIFA president. The suspensions that have been handed out also have a further 45 days after the 90 day period if they are going to be charged separately from FIFA. The title of FIFA president has also been removed from his Twitter account. The suspensions have obviously thrown UEFA and FIFA into disarray and 2 members of FIFA’s powerful executive committee Wolfgang Niersbach and David Gill have called for an emergency meeting as soon as possible.

FIFA Playing Hardball

FIFA has already released a statement, which states that Mr. Blatter will no longer be allowed to represent FIFA in any capacity. This means that he can’t act on behalf of FIFA, and he will not be allowed to communicate with the media or the stakeholders as a representative of FIFA. Mr. Platini has taken a hard-line approach towards his suspension and openly declared it as ‘astonishingly vague’ and ‘farcical’.

The executive committee of UEFA has also defied the suspension placed by FIFA on Mr. Platini and has announced in its own statement that it will not remove Mr. Platini from his position as the UEFA president, but it later clarified that Mr. Platini will not be allowed to attend meetings or perform any official duties as the UEFA president. The executive director of The International Center for Sport Security, Chris Eaton, and the president of the International Olympic Committee have both made statements that claimed that Football, not only FIFA was on the verge of disaster and called for an external candidate to run for its presidency. Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, who lost out to Blatter in May’s election has announced his intention to run for the presidency again and has been placed as the odds-on favorite to replace Sepp Blatter as FIFA president by several British bookmakers.