Fifa suspends Blatter, Platini and Valcke for 90 days

President Sepp Blatter, vice-president Michel Platini and secretary general Jerome Valcke have all been provisionally suspended for 90 days today by the ethics committee of football’s world governing body, over corruption allegations of all three members of FIFA.

Ex-FIFA vice-president Chung Mong-joon has also been banned, but for a total of six years.

Blatter’s ban leaves void a rather vital part of the FIFA organisation, but it has also been announced that the head of Africa’s football federation, Issa Hayatou, will take over the reigns for the duration of the ban.

Whilst Platini leaves the UEFA president role open, meaning Spain’s Angel Maria Villar will come in to replace him whilst the Frenchman is suspended.

The three are exempt from any football activity whatsoever in the meantime, but all three strongly deny any wrongdoing.

FIFA issued the following statement, along with the announcement of the bans:

“Today, in accordance with Fifa’s Code of Ethics, Joseph S. Blatter was relieved of all his duties as Fifa President following the decision of the Independent Chairman of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the Ethics Committee to provisionally ban him from all football activities on a national and international level.

“Joseph S. Blatter, for the duration of the 90-day ban, is not allowed to represent Fifa in any capacity, act on the organisation’s behalf, or communicate to media or other stakeholders as a Fifa representative.

“As mandated by article 32 (6) of the Fifa Statutes, Issa Hayatou, as the longest-serving vice-president on Fifa’s Executive Committee, will serve as Acting President of Fifa.”

The FA have also released a statement of their own, saying it was “an extremely disappointing day for football”.

“This is an extremely disappointing day for football. We trust the FIFA Ethics Committee will conduct the investigations in an independent, robust and timely manner. As we said last week, there are key questions that have arisen in the past month that must be answered by those concerned.”