Blatter considering legal action against Fifa

Former Fifa president Sepp Blatter, currently serving a ban from the sport, told Reuters Thursday he is considering legal action against the global football body in an attempt to clear his name. Blatter, who led Fifa for 17 years, was handed a six-year ban for ethics violation, imposed amid the biggest corruption scandal to shake world football's governing body in 2015. The 81-year-old Swiss said that while "for the time being there is no legal action", he and his lawyers were working on a potential case. "My aim is to look into the decision of Fifa's ethics committee in view of information, and even evidence that I have received, in the meantime, in connection with my suspension," Blatter told Reuters via email. "We are working on this case – and looking forward for development."

Sepp Blatter is considering legal action against FIFA. https://t.co/FETeXdg7Fp pic.twitter.com/VqX8VGX9dx

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It is likely that any legal action from Blatter would take place in the Swiss civil court. Fifa did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In December 2016, Blatter lost an appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the suspension. CAS ruled that Blatter had authorised payment to Michel Platini, then the European football boss, worth over $2m that amounted to “undue gift” and therefore violated Fifa's code of ethics. Blatter had resigned in June 2015 after several dozen football officials, including Fifa executive committee members and former members, had been indicted in the United States on graft charge, along with two sports marketing firm.

Sepp Blatter, the former FIFA president who is serving a ban from football, has told Reuters he is considering legal action against the governing body.https://t.co/9TKiDRjriq #KweseESPN pic.twitter.com/tp7y0QTWQv

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The former Fifa president was not among those indicted, but became embroiled in scandal when he was banned from all football-related activity the following December by Fifa's ethics committee along with Platini. The men were banned, initially for eight years, over a payment of 2m Swiss francs ($1.98m) that Fifa made to Platini in 2011, with Blatter’s approval, for work done a decade earlier. The bans were reduced to six years by Fifa's appeal committee in February 2016. Blatter, who has denied all charge against him, had compared the Fifa ethics committee investigation to "the inquisition". In 2015 Swiss prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into Blatter on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and misappropriation but no charge has yet been brought. The man who headed Fifa from 1998 to 2015 says he intends to attend June's World Cup in Russia after a personal invitation from Russian president Vladimir Putin.