FIFA President Sepp Blatter and UEFA chief Michel Platini are still receiving their salaries despite both being suspended from all footballing activity for eight years, it has been revealed.
Blatter, head of football’s world governing body since 1998, will continue to be paid until a new President is elected at the Extraordinary Congress, due to take place in Zurich on February 26, according to a spokesman for FIFA’s Audit and Compliance Committee.
The 79-year-old, who turns 80 in March, will not receive any bonuses, however, due to the fact that he is not currently supervising the organisation.
Confederation of African Football head Issa Haytou is serving as interim President of FIFA but it is not known much he is being remunerated for the role.
Frenchman Platini, who recently withdrew his candidature to become the Swiss’ successor, will be given his salary “until further notice”.
“Until the election of a new President on Feb 26, Mr Blatter is the elected President and therefore – according to his contract – is entitled to receive his remuneration,” Andres Bantel, a spokesman for the FIFA Audit and Compliance Committee, told Reuters.
“The duty of supervision is listed explicitly in the target agreements for the payment of bonuses.
“The Compensation Committee has therefore decided, at its last meeting, not to make any further bonus payments to Mr Blatter.”
Neither Blatter nor Platini’s salary has been disclosed, with a UEFA statement confirming that “individual salaries are of a confidential nature”.
FIFA Presidential candidate Gianni Infantino, also the general secretary UEFA and a close ally of Platini, revealed his intention to make the wages of the President, secretary general and the organisation’s members public should he be elected in a bid to improve transparency within the governing body.
Blatter and Platini were given eight-year bans in December over an alleged “disloyal” payment of CHF2 million (£1.4 million/$2 million/€1.8 million) made to the Frenchman by the Swiss in 2011.
They have both since declared their intention to appeal their suspensions but they suffered a further blow last week when the Investigatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee announced it will contest the Adjudicatory Chamber’s ruling, claiming the punishments handed out to the duo were too lenient.
Jeffrey Webb, former President of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, has had his contract terminated by his governing body and is not receiving a salary.
The former FIFA vice-president, from the Cayman Islands, was one of the officials arrested ahead of the FIFA Congress in May and pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, three counts of wire fraud and three counts of money laundering in December following an indictment from the United States Department of Justice.
Webb remains under house arrest in Georgia on a $10 million (£7 million/€9 million) bond raised with the help of luxury cars, jewellery and property.
He is expected to be sentenced in June.
- By Liam Morgan; this article was republished with permission from the original publisher Inside the Games www.insidethegames.biz