Ex-FIFA boss Blatter to learn whether ban will be overturned

The Court of Arbitration for Sport announced on Friday that it would publish its ruling on Blatter's appeal on its website at 14:00 UTC on Monday.

Last December, FIFA's Ethics Committee handed Blatter an eight-year ban from all football-related activities over a "disloyal payment" of two million Swiss francs (1.86 million euros, $2.07 million) to former UEFA President Michel Platini, which was made nine years after consultancy work had been carried out. Platini also received an eight-year ban.

FIFA's  appeals committee later reduced both of the suspensions to six years, but Blatter, who, like Platini, has said that he did nothing wrong,  is seeking to get the ban lifted entirely. In the meantime, Platini, who testified on Blatter's behalf at a hearing back in August, has managed to get his ban cut to just four years.

The 80-year-old Blatter headed world football's governing body between 1999 and his a provisional suspensionhe received over the case in October 2015. This came four months after he had announced that he would step down as president at an extraordinary FIFA Congress called to elect his successor. Blatter made the announcement just days after he had been elected to a fifth term as president - amid corruption allegations against several senior football officials and several arrests ahead of the May 2015 Congress in Zurich.

Gianni Infantino was elected as the new FIFA president at the extraordinary Congress in February 2016.

The payment to Platini is also subject of an ongoing criminal investigation in Switzerland.

FIFA has also launched an additional ethics investigation into Blatter, former FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke, and former finance director Markus Kattner on the suspicion that they conspired to enrich themselves illegally.

pfd/ftm (Reuters, dpa, AP)