布拉特被罰8年禁足 Eight year football ban completes Blatter’s downfall

Sepp Blatter was banned from world football for eight years yesterday, completing his downfall after 17 years at the pinnacle of the sport.

國際足聯(Fifa)主席塞普布拉特(Sepp Blatter)昨日被裁定8年內禁止參加任何形式的足球活動，他在執掌足球界17年後落馬。

Fifa’s ethics committee said it could not conclusively prove that Mr Blatter was corrupt but banned him for unethical behaviour, a failure to respect “all the applicable laws”, and for abusing his position as Fifa president.

國際足聯道德委員會表示，該委員會無法最終證明布拉特腐敗，但因不道德行爲、不尊重“所有適用法律”以及濫用國際足聯主席這一職務對他實行禁令。

Michel Platini, the head of football in Europe, saw his hopes of succeeding Mr Blatter at Fifa dashed by his own eight-year ban.

歐洲足聯主席米歇爾渠拉蒂尼(Michel Platini)也被“禁足”8年，這令其接替布拉特出任國際足聯主席的願望泡湯。

The two men were banned after a Sfr2m payment from Fifa to Mr Platini in February 2011 came to light. While both men said the payment was for work carried out by Mr Platini for Fifa between 1998 and 2002, there was no contract and no record of the payment in Fifa’s accounts.

在兩人被“禁足”之前，國際足聯在2011年2月向普拉蒂尼支付200萬瑞士法郎一事被曝光。儘管兩人都表示，這筆付款是爲普拉蒂尼在1998年至2002年爲國際足聯開展工作所支付的報酬，但在國際足聯的賬目中沒有任何有關這筆付款的合同和記錄。

Mr Blatter, who will turn 80 in March, has robustly denied any wrongdoing and challenged the power of the ethics committee to enforce a ban, insisting only Fifa’s congress could elect to remove him.

明年3月將滿80歲的布拉特一直堅決否認自己有不當行爲，並挑戰國際足聯道德委員會執行禁令的權力，堅稱只有國際足聯大會才能通過投票解除他的職務。