Fifa suspends Blatter, Platini for 90 days

Paris - UEFA boss, Platini, and the man he hopes to replace, Sepp Blatter, were both suspended for 90 days after they were named in a Swiss corruption case.

Michel Platini's suspension from all football-related activities does not automatically invalidate his candidacy for the Fifa presidency, the world governing body's ethics committee told AFP on Thursday.
UEFA boss, Platini, who submitted his papers to stand for the presidency on Thursday, and the man he hopes to replace, Sepp Blatter, were both suspended for 90 days after they were named in a Swiss corruption case.
"That (Platini's candidacy) is not a question for the ethics committee but for Fifa's electoral commission, which will study its validity," committee spokesman Andreas Bantel, told AFP.
The independent ethics committee also banned South Korean tycoon, Chung Mong-Joon, another presidential hopeful, for six years and Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke, already ordered to leave by FIFA over a separate ticketing scandal, for 90 days.
Hayatou takes temporary charge of Fifa
Hayatou, 69, is president of the Confederation of African Football, and takes over as senior vice president of FIFA. He has in the past been reprimanded for misconduct by the International Olympic Committee. 
"Joseph S. Blatter was relieved of all his duties as FIFA president" after the move by the FIFA ethics committee to suspend him for 90 days because he is under criminal investigation by Swiss prosecutors, FIFA said.
Blatter lawyers say FIFA rules not followed
Lawyers for Sepp Blatter said that the watchdog that suspended Blatter for 90 days had failed to follow its own rules by not letting him give evidence. 
The Swiss and American lawyers predicted that a criminal investigation against the 79-year-old Swiss official would be dropped. 
"President Blatter was disappointed that the Ethics Committee did not follow the code of ethics and disciplinary code, both of which provide for an opportunity to be heard," said a statement released after FIFA announced the suspension of Blatter and UEFA president Michel Platini. 
The laywers said the suspension was based on a "misunderstanding" of the case launched by the Swiss attorney general. 
Swiss prosecutors had "opened an investigation but brought no charge against the president," said the statement released by Zurich lawyers Lorenz Erni, Erni Brun Forrer and US-based Richard Cullen. 
"The prosecutors will be obliged by law to dismiss the case if their investigation, barely two weeks old, does not establish sufficient evidence. 
"President Blatter looks forward to the opportunity to present evidence that will demonstrate that he did not engage in any misconduct, criminal or otherwise," the statement said.