Humiliating end for Sepp Blatter’s 40-year Fifa reign

Sepp Blatter’s 40-year Fifa reign came to a humiliating end as he and Michel Platini, the two most powerful men in world football, were banned for eight years by Fifa’s ethics committee for abusing their positions yesterday.

Blatter claimed he had been “killed” and “betrayed” by the ethics committee he had appointed while Platini insisted the bans were “a mockery” — but it looks to be the end of the road for both men’s Fifa careers.

The bans were imposed by Fifa’s ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert for a “disloyal payment” of 2m Swiss francs (€1.8m) made to Uefa president Platini in 2011, signed off by Blatter.