FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA chief Michel Platini are both facing a 90-day provisional suspension recommended by the FIFA's ethics committee, local reports said on Wednesday.
The Guardian reported that the chair of the adjudicatory chamber of the ethics committee, Hans-Joachim Eckert, must now decide whether to endorse the decision after news of the suspension leaked on Wednesday before being confirmed by a longtime associate of Blatter.
Both have been under extreme pressure since the Swiss attorney general, Michael Lauber, opened a criminal investigation into allegations Blatter mis-sold a World Cup TV rights contract to the disgraced former FIFA official Jack Warner in 2006 and made a "disloyal payment" of 1.3 million pounds to Platini in 2011. Blatter and Platini deny any wrongdoing.
"What we know is that president Blatter was told he could be suspended for 90 days. There is no guilt impugned," the PR adviser Klaus Stohlker was quoted as saying.
"At least president Blatter has not flown away from his throne but is still in power. It's a very difficult situation. It's not good for global football."
Stohlker, a Blatter loyalist, insisted that his FIFA career was not necessarily over and that Blatter would return to his office to await further news. "He is quiet, he is reluctant, he is fully prepared to take his responsibilities," he told the Guardian.
Blatter's lawyers issued a statement Wednesday night denying he had been informed of any action by the ethics committee but not ruling out the possibility that a recommendation had been made.
"We issue this statement in response to press reports about the FIFA ethics committee. President Blatter has not been notified of any action taken by the FIFA ethics committee," it said.
"We would expect the ethics committee would want to hear from the President and his counsel, and conduct a thorough review of the evidence, before making any recommendation to take disciplinary action."
