FIFA

Report: Sepp Blatter Appeals Suspension

Claiming unfair treatment.

FIFA’s embattled president has filed an official appeal of his suspension from soccer’s world governing body, The New York Times reports. Blatter, who has helmed the organization since 1998, was suspended early Thursday by the association’s ethics committee in the wake of a criminal investigation. The Times, which said it had obtained a copy of the appeal, reported Blatter objected to “brusque” and “unfair” treatment. Blatter’s lawyers also reportedly demanded to see the ethics committee’s case file and called for a hearing to argue their case. Switzerland’s attorney general’s office said last month it had opened a criminal inquiry into Blatter concerning a Caribbean television-rights deal and a payment from FIFA to European soccer official Michel Platini in 2011.