Former FIFA President Blatter Handed Six-Year Ban
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter was handed a further six years and eight months ban from the game and fined a million Swiss francs ($1.44 million) by the body's Ethics Committee after a probe into massive bonus payments.
Blatter's current ban from the game was due to expire in October but the latest ban, for ethics code violations, will take effect from that point, Reuters reported.
The latest investigation looked into World Cup bonus payments made to Blatter and a number of former top FIFA officials including former general secretary Jerome Valcke, former vice-president Julio Grondona and ex-finance director Markus Kattner.
Valcke and Kattner could not immediately be reached for comment.
Blatter, 85, underwent heart surgery in December and is still recovering in a rehabilitation clinic in the Valais Alps, his spokesman said.
The Swiss was FIFA president from 1998 to 2015 when a number of FIFA officials were arrested in a US-led corruption probe.
Blatter was banned for eight years by FIFA's ethics committee in December 2015 but that was later reduced to six years.
The decisions can be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.
