'Blatter, Platini left off the hook with eight-year ban'

Renowned Ghanaian lawyer Moses Foh-Amoaning feels Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini have been let off the hook with the eight-year bans handed them by the FIFA Ethics Committee.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter and his Vice Michel Platini who is also the President of UEFA were handed the eight-year ban after being found guilty for breaking code of ethics over a ‘disloyal payment’.

Blatter is accused of making two million Swiss francs ($2 million, 1.8 million euros) transfer in 2011 to his deputy.

This payment is considered illegal as there was no contract covering the work done by Platini to deserve such payments.

Both men however vehemently deny these claims, insisting the agreement was verbal and have already lodged an appeal to the Ethics Committee ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).

But Moses Foh-Amoaning who was a member of a three-man Presidential Commission that probed Ghana’s disastrous campaign at the 2014 World Cup, says these two top executives of FIFA have been left off easy as per the evidence adduced in the hearings they deserve a life-time ban from football.

“I disagree with the Ethics Committee because I think there was a clear case of corruption against Blatter and Michel Platini and they should have found this and banned these two officials for life,” he told Happy FM.

“Don’t forget similar situations have been raised against former executives who were banned from football and I think Blatter and Platini have been left off the hook on this one.”

Sepp Blatter has been FIFA boss since 1998 but served notice he would be stepping down early next year days after winning a fresh four-year mandate mainly due to the bribery and corruption scandal to hit the world football governing body.

Michel Platini on the other hand, is stripped off the chance of realizing his ambition to become the successor to Sepp Blatter in the next election set February 26.