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Suspended Fifa president Sepp Blatter and vice-president Michel Platini could face seven-year bans from football if found guilty of corruption claims. Fifa ethics investigators are likely to have recommended the sanctions over a “disloyal payment” that saw Platini, 60, receive £1.35m from Blatter, 79. There was no written contract for the consultation-work payment, which Platini received nine years later.

An adjudicatory committee could announce its verdict by Christmas. Both Blatter and Platini, who is also the president of European football’s governing body Uefa, are currently serving 90-day provisional bans. The pair have denied any wrongdoing, stating they had a “oral contract” for the work.

However, they are thought to be facing additional charges including mismanagement, false accounting and failure to cooperate with the ethics committee. The adjudicatory committee, led by German judge Hans Joachim Eckert, is expected to open proceedings this week, although a verdict will not be announced until next month at the earliest.

Fifa’s ethics investigatory committee is likely to have pushed for a minimum seven-year ban for both Blatter and Platini. This is based on the similar length of time that Harold Mayne Nicholls — the man who wrote the technical inspection reports for 2018 and 2022 World Cup candidate nations — received for breaching “conflict of interest” rules.

Meanwhile, Platini, who still hopes to replace Blatter as the next Fifa president in the February elections, has taken his case against his suspension to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas). In a last ditch bid to overturn a 90-day ban and thereby run for the Fifa presidency Michel Platini lodged an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), his lawyers said on Friday.

The move comes after a Fifa appeal committee on Wednesday rejected the French Uefa supremo’s joint bid with Sepp Blatter to overturn their suspensions which run until January 5 while Swiss police pursue a criminal investigation.

“Michel Platini’s appeal to the CAS has been lodged,” the former Juventus star’s lawyers confirmed on Friday. Frenchman Platini wants his suspension overturned, his case heard quickly and his ban lifted pending Eckert’s final judgement.— BBC.