Blatter appeal decision to be announced on Monday

[December 02, 2016]  ZURICH (Reuters) - Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter will discover on Monday whether he has won his appeal against a six-year ban from football imposed for ethics violations amid the biggest corruption scandal ever to shake the world soccer body.

Blatter led the global soccer body for 17 years until he resigned in June last year after several dozen football officials, including former FIFA executive committee members and entities, were indicted in the United States on graft-related charges.

Blatter, 80, was not among those indicted but himself became embroiled when he was banned from all football-related activity the following December by FIFA's ethics committee, along with the then UEFA president Michel Platini.

As a result of the scandal, FIFA has been forced to implement wide-ranging reforms to make itself more transparent and accountable, as have regional governing bodies in South America (CONMEBOL) and North and Central America and the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, Swiss prosecutors are investigating the decision made in 2010 to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 tournament to Qatar.

The bans were imposed on Blatter and Platini for ethics violations related to a payment of two million Swiss francs that FIFA made to Platini with Blatter’s approval in 2011 for work done a decade earlier.

Both men, who have denied wrongdoing, were initially banned for eight years, later reduced to six by FIFA’s appeals committee.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), sport's highest tribunal, said on Friday it would announce its verdict in the case at 1400 GMT.

Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter leaves the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after being heard in the arbitration procedure involving him and FIFA in Lausanne, Switzerland, August 25, 2016. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy

Platini has already taken his case to CAS, which rejected his appeal but reduced his ban to four years.

CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb said that at the time of Platini's hearing that the outcome of the Frenchman's case could be an accurate guide as to what would happen to Blatter.

(Reporting by Michael Shields and Brian Homewood)[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

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