Skip to content

Damian Collins wants further investigation into FIFA

Damian Collins
Image: Damian Collins: "The fish rots from the head down and we know how rotten the head of FIFA was."

FIFA reform campaigner Damian Collins has called for continued investigation into football's governing body after Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini were banned from football for eight years.

The pair have been punished by FIFA's ethics committee judge Hans-Joachim Eckert for a "disloyal payment" of £1.35m to Platini which was signed off by Blatter.

The bans are immediate and end UEFA president Platini's slim hopes of running for the FIFA presidency on February 26.

FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter and UEFA President Michel Platini
Image: Both Blatter and Platini continue to deny any wrongdoing

Collins, a member of the House of Commons Select Committee for Culture, Media and Sport, said the bans must be followed by further reform.

"We will see in the next few months whether this is the end of FIFA too. They have to implement wide-ranging reforms of the organisation, led by an independent outside body," the MP told Sky Sports News HQ.

FIFA crisis LIVE!
FIFA crisis LIVE!

Updates and reaction as Blatter and Platini are both handed long bans from football...

"The fish rots from the head down and we know how rotten the head of FIFA was and we now have to find out just how much of the organisation has been infected.

"They have outlined changes they want to put to the FIFA congress in February, a lot of those changes are a step in the right direction.

Also See:

"What there has to be is proper independent scrutiny of what FIFA does and stop the president of FIFA holding the same power that Sepp Blatter held in the past, where you have a small elite group of people with very little scrutiny of what they do."

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini have been banned from all football-related activity for eight years and fined by FIFA

Blatter's personal adviser Klaus Stoehlker has confirmed the 79-year-old will appeal against the ban, and is prepared to take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne but Collins believes he will fail.

He said: "I've heard Sepp Blatter is going to appeal but really there is no point. It's quite clear he made this payment without a contract, without accruing for it in the FIFA accounts. It was delayed for eight years and paid just before the FIFA presidential elections.

"That was clearly a conflict of interest and I don't really think he has got a leg to stand on."

Around Sky