Former FIFA president Blatter loses appeal against ban

CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

Swiss prosecutors are now investigating Blatter on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and misappropriation of funds over the payment, which they describe as "disloyal", though he has not been charged.

And in September, FIFA's Ethics Committee said it was investigating Blatter and two other former leading FIFA officials over the salaries and bonuses they had received while in office.

Those probes come against a broader background of suspicion over the FIFA Executive Committee's allocation of FIFA's showpiece event, the four-yearly World Cup, to Russia and Qatar on Blatter's watch; Swiss authorities are investigating whether bribes were paid to help secure the hosting rights.

Blatter, who must also pay a fine of 50,000 Swiss francs, told Reuters after the CAS ruling: "I have accepted it now. I have got to the stage where I have struggled enough, I have worked enough."

"I still have contact with people in football and heads of state," he said. "We have developed football all around the world, we have made football part of the economy and it also has some political influence ...

"I do hope that at a future FIFA Congress, somebody will stand up and say 'perhaps president Blatter is not so bad'."

CAS cut Platini's ban to four years in May but said on Monday that Blatter had not requested a reduction, adding: "In any event, the panel determined that the sanction imposed was not disproportionate." ($1 = 1.0093 Swiss francs)