Blatter to appeal FIFA ban at sports tribunal

Sepp Blatter will appeal against a FIFA ruling banning him from football for eight years to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), his spokesman said on Monday.

Sepp. Blatter attends a press conference as reaction to his banishment for eight years from all football-related activities by the FIFA ethics committee.

Sepp Blatter will appeal against a FIFA ruling banning him from football for eight years to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), his spokesman said on Monday.

"I can confirm this, yes," Blatter spokesman Klaus Stoelker told AFP when asked if the long-serving FIFA president would launch an appeal at the Lausanne-based court.

FIFA's ethics court suspended Blatter, 79, and FIFA vice president Michel Platini, 60, for eight years over a 2 million Swiss franc ($2 million/1.8 million euros) payment that Blatter authorised to Platini.

Swiss prosecutors say it was a "disloyal payment" and have placed veteran football powerbroker Blatter under investigation.

Platini has been questioned in the Swiss case in a category that falls between a witness and an accused.

Swiss attorney general spokeswoman Nathalie Guth told AFP in an email that prosecutors were "aware of the FIFA decision".

She added that the verdict "would not influence the criminal proceedings" being carried out by the attorney general. Regarding Blatter's prospective CAS challenge, a spokesman for FIFA's ethics prosecutors, Andreas Bantel, said he first needed to read the motivation of such an appeal before commenting.