FIFA extends ban on Blatter, Valcke by 6 years

FIFA banned its former president Sepp Blatter until 2028 on Wednesday after handing him a new suspension of six years and eight months for receiving huge bonuses.

Former FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke also had his existing suspension extended by the same amount.

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The new bans will only come into force when the current bans on Blatter and Valcke for corruption, which last till October this year and October 2025, end.

Fifa’s Ethics Committee said it had also fined each man one million Swiss francs ($1.1 million, 900 000 euros).

Blatter, who is 85, received 23 million Swiss francs in “extraordinary bonuses” linked to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil as well as the Confederations Cup tournament in Brazil that preceded it, the Ethics Committee said in a summary of its decision.

Valcke, the 60-year-old Frenchman who was Blatter’s right-hand man during his 17-year reign at the head of football’s world governing body, received 30 million Swiss francs in bonuses over the same period, the committee said.

The former sports journalist was initially banned for 12 years but it was reduced to 10 years on appeal. He is now banned until 2032.