Adjudicatory Chamber finds no graft evidence on Blatter, Platini charges

Disgraced FIFA president Sepp Blatter and European soccer boss Michel Platini have escaped potential lifetime bans from football demanded by investigators.

This comes after the ethics committee’s adjudicatory chamber found no evidence of bribery linked to a $2 million payment that FIFA made to Platini in 2011, with Blatter’s approval.

The developments follow an announcement by FIFA’s ethics committee investigative chamber that they were planning to appeal on the eight-year bans to have the duo slapped with longer bans.

Blatter and Platini were both banned last month from soccer for eight years on ethics violations charges, leaving the global game leaderless as it seeks to dig itself out from beneath a slew of corruption cases.

Both have denied wrongdoing.