THE judgment arm of FIFA’s ethics committee opened a case against the body’s suspended president Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini on Monday, with a verdict in the corruption allegations surrounding both men due next month.

    The panel of judges, known as the adjudicatory chamber, received the final report from the ethics committee’s investigative branch Saturday, which called for sanctions to be levelled against both men.

    A guilty verdict would almost certainly crush UEFA president Platini’s hopes of succeeding Blatter at the top of world soccer’s governing body.

    The investigative branch did not disclose the severity of the recommended sanctions, or the evidence collected, but both Blatter and Platini have been implicated in possible criminal conduct in a separate case launched by Swiss prosecutors.

    In a statement, the adjudicatory chamber said it had “opened formal adjudicatory proceedings against Joseph S. Blatter and Michel Platini based on the final reports submitted by the investigatory chamber.”

    The chamber “intends to come to a decision in both cases during the month of December,” the statement further said.

    FIFA’s ethics committee provisionally suspended both men — once the two most powerful figures in world soccer — for 90 days in October.

    Blatter, Platini and their representatives can appear before the FIFA-appointed judges to mount a defense, while investigators can also make a presentation in the process that functions like an in-house court.

    Multiple sources close to the case, who requested anonymity, have said that Blatter, a Swiss national, and France’s Platini could face suspensions from soccer of between five and seven years if found guilty.

    The provisional 90-day suspensions, which expire Jan. 5, followed the opening of a criminal case by Switzerland’s attorney general.

    Swiss prosecutors said they were targeting Blatter for possible criminal mismanagement during his tenure as FIFA’s president, including signing off on a dodgy TV rights deal.

    Platini was questioned over a suspect US$2 million payment he received from FIFA in 2011, reportedly for work done a decade earlier.

    (SD-Agencies)