THE first public indication from within FIFA about the weight of the case against Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini was provided Tuesday by its financial compliance head, who denounced a payment that led to the soccer leaders being suspended as a “classic conflict of interest.’’

    Blatter, the FIFA president, could also be culpable for the alleged “falsification’’ of accounts over the payment of 2 million Swiss francs (US$2 million) to Platini, according to Domenico Scala, the independent chairman of FIFA’s audit and compliance committee.

    Blatter authorized the financial transaction in 2011 and Platini now says it was salary he was owed from his work as a presidential adviser between 1998 and 2002. The debt should have been detailed in FIFA’s accounts from 2002 until the 2011 payment, but was not, Scala said in an interview with The Associated Press.

    Both Blatter and Platini have acknowledged there was only a verbal agreement between them for the outstanding pay, which has sparked investigations by both the Swiss attorney general and FIFA ethics investigators.

    Blatter and Platini are serving 90-day provisional suspensions, while FIFA’s ethics committee completes a full investigation into the actions of two of the most powerful officials in world sport.  (SD-Agencies)