FIFA president Sepp Blatter 'facing provisional 90-day ban' amid criminal investigation
Embattled FIFA president Sepp Blatter is reportedly facing a provisional 90-day suspension by an ethics tribunal convened by the world football body.
Last month, Swiss authorities opened an investigation for "criminal mismanagement" against 79-year-old Mr Blatter.
UK media has reported the FIFA Ethics Committee has recommended the ban while the criminal investigation is undertaken.
Representatives for the administrator have denied the reports.
"President Blatter has not been notified of any action taken by the FIFA Ethics Committee," a joint statement from Mr Blatter’s lawyers said.
UEFA president Michel Platini has also been implicated in the investigation over a 1.78 million euros (A$2.77 million) payment made to him in 2011.
FIFA has kept the activities of its independent ethics committee cloaked in secrecy in recent months as accusations of corruption have mounted.
Mr Blatter, who has ruled FIFA for 17 years, insisted in a German magazine interview on Wednesday that he would not be forced out of office before an election to be held in February.
Meanwhile, former FIFA vice-president Chung Mong-Joon has hit out at Mr Blatter, calling him "a hypocrite and a liar" and threatening a legal case for embezzlement of FIFA funds.
Mr Platini has also been implicated in the investigation because of a two million dollar (1.78 million euros) payment made to the French football legend in 2011.
FIFA's secretary general Jerome Valcke was suspended last month following press allegations that linked him to the sale of World Cup tickets at inflated prices.
Mr Blatter won a fifth term of office on May 29, despite a major storm over a US inquiry into the football business. But four days later he announced he would stand down when a new election is held on February 26.
Mr Platini had been favourite to win the election until the Swiss investigation named him. His entourage said that he did not appear before the FIFA commission this week and that he feels he has done nothing wrong.
"The president feels that he has given satisfactory explanations to the authorities that are dealing with this case," Mr Platini's spokesman Pedro Pinto told reporters in London.
Mr Platini, Mr Chung and Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, a former FIFA vice president from Jordan, are the main candidates for the election so far.
Mr Chung is under investigation because of his lobbying for South Korea's bid for the 2022 World Cup, which Qatar controversially won.
The South Korean tycoon says FIFA has cleared him of the charges once in 2012 and that the new charges are part of a Blatter campaign to block his bid for the presidency.
Mr Chung returned to the attack on Wednesday at the Leaders Sport Business convention in London, saying Swiss lawyers could launch a $100 million "embezzlement" case against Blatter.
Mr Chung, a FIFA vice president for 17 years until 2011, condemned what he called Blatter's "secretive" ways in not declaring his salary and taking payments without permission.
He said Blatter had "repeatedly meddled" in the elections of major football confederations and FIFA votes.
"FIFA has become a badge of shame," he said.
"In short Mr Blatter is a hypocrite and a liar."
Mr Chung said the FIFA ethics committee has sought a 15 year ban against him. He called it a "smear campaign" by Blatter.
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