A major scandal erupted yesterday among senior functionaries of the football world. Ethics Committee of the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) decided to ban Joseph Blatter, the head of the organization, and Michel Platini, president of European Football Association (UEFA), from football activities for the next eight years. The official FIFA statement explains that this decision concerns the transfer of 2 million Swiss francs from the president of FIFA to the president of UEFA, regarding which Blatter failed to provide legal justification for the transaction and was unable to prove the legality of the payments. The verdict issued by the Ethics Committee virtually eliminates the possibility for Platini to run for FIFA presidency in elections that will take place in early 2016.
Though the story of the suspension of the most influential persons in the world of football is primarily related to the internal showdown and the suspicions of corruption within FIFA and UEFA, the media circles still associate it with the “Russian affair,” which resulted in that country being granted the right to host the World Cup in 2018.
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“The situation is quite confusing and ambiguous. Publicly FIFA and UEFA state they don’t have enough evidence on the issue of Russian World Cup, which would give FIFA the right to reconsider the venue of the 2018 championship. And the current scandal with the dismissal of Blatter and Platini has formally nothing to do with this,” says Artem Frankov, football expert, editor of Football magazine, in the commentary to The Day. “Most likely Platini will try to defend his reputation in the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Lausanne, because his participation in the FIFA president election depends on it. I think that this story has to do primarily with the struggle for power in FIFA. Blatter felt that he was losing power and decided for one to bring down Platini. It’s no secret that Blatter had long been against Platini’s nomination for the presidency of FIFA, regarding him as a strong competitor for the post. Another corruption case is underway in Switzerland, this time regarding the abuse in selling the TV-marketing rights. To some extent, the reputation of higher officials in the world of football is now tarnished. Obviously, the stability can be brought about by the elections of new FIFA leadership.”
