Fifa President Sepp Blatter faces a 90-day suspension from football if the governing body’s ethics judge backs a prosecutor’s recommendation, a close friend and former adviser to Blatter told Reuters yesterday.
Blatter’s long-term confidant Klaus Stoehlker said the decision by Judge Hans-Joachim Eckert on the provisional suspension was expected by Friday.
“There is no final decision, this is a recommendation from the lower part of the Ethics Committee to the upper part,” said Stoehlker, who added that Blatter had been informed of the development.
A Fifa spokesperson directed inquiries to Blatter’s US lawyers who did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesman for Eckert declined to comment. A spokesman for the Investigatory Chamber of the Ethics Committee was not immediately available for comment.
Swiss prosecutors last month opened a criminal investigation into Blatter over a Caribbean World Cup TV rights contract he signed, and a 2011 payment of 2 million Swiss francs ($2.1 million) to Platini. Both have denied any wrongdoing.
