Sepp Blatter 'provisionally suspended' for 90 days
The bad news just keeps coming for Sepp Blatter after FIFA provisionally suspended the president of football's world governing body.
Already facing an investigation by Swiss authorities over allegations that he signed an "unfavourable" contract and made a "disloyal payment" to UEFA president Michel Platini, Blatter faces a 90-day suspension.
"They have not taken any decisions against him. But they have decided to wait on major decisions to carry out further investigation," Blatter's advisor Klaus Stoehlker told CNN.
Stoehlker added that Blatter still considered himself the president of FIFA and is "still prepared to serve FIFA."
Any suspension would have to be rubber stamped by the adjudicatory arm of FIFA's Ethics Committee, which would rule on the request of the investigatory chamber.
This latest blow for Blatter comes after the Swiss attorney general opened criminal proceedings against Blatter last month.
The Swiss authorities are looking into allegations believed to centre on a 2005 TV rights deal between FIFA and Jack Warner, the former president of CONCACAF, the governing body of football in North and Central America and the Caribbean as well as the "disloyal payment" to Platini.
Blatter was informed of the decision by the head of FIFA's Adjudicatory Chamber Hans-Joachim Eckhardt.
Stoehlker said Blatter would be back in his FIFA office Thursday, insisting that the Swiss hadn't served his last day as the organisation's president.
Pressure group NewFIFANow, which has campaigned against Blatter, reiterated its call for radical reform of the world governing body.
"With criminal investigations reaching the highest levels of FIFA, and potential ethics investigations into other Presidential candidates, it once again reinforces the need for a complete 'new broom' at FIFA to implement independent reform and essentially to start again," said a NewFIFANow statement.
If Blatter is suspended, Issa Hayatou, vice-president of FIFA, would potentially be in line to take charge of the organisation.
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