Court of Arbitration for Sport maintains Blatter ban

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has maintained a six-year ban from soccer for former FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

The 80-year-old Swiss, who headed FIFA for 17 years until last year, was banned from all soccer-related activity last December along with then-European soccer boss Michel Platini.

The bans related to a payment of two million Swiss francs that FIFA made to Platini with Blatter’s approval in 2011 for work done a decade earlier.

Both men deny wrongdoing and were initially banned for eight years, later reduced to six by FIFA’s appeals committee.

Platini had already taken his case to CAS, which rejected his appeal, but reduced his ban to four years.

Blatter may appeal the ruling before a Swiss tribunal within 30 days.

Swiss prosecutors continue to investigate the awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar.

Reuters