Sepp Blatter has called a news conference Monday to respond to the FIFA ethics committee's verdict. Blatter's spokesman, Thomas Renggli, tells the Associated Press the suspended FIFA president has hired space at world soccer's former headquarters at Sonnenberg in Zurich for the 11 a.m. (1000 GMT) event. The FIFA ethics committee is expected to give rulings in the cases of Blatter and Michel Platini earlier Monday. Blatter and Platini risk bans of at least several years for a rules-breaking conflict of interest. The case centers on Platini's $2 million payment from FIFA approved by Blatter in 2011 as uncontracted salary for working as a presidential adviser from 1999-2002. Both deny wrongdoing. Blatter attended his ethics hearing at FIFA on Thursday. A FIFA ethics court Friday heard corruption accusations against Platini who boycotted the hearing. The French football legend's lawyers pleaded Platini's case before the FIFA investigatory chamber. Platini has said the verdict was decided in advance and has refused to attend, leaving his legal team to fight his corner. FIFA's ethics judges have however insisted that all evidence will be judged fairly. Platini's lawyer, Thibaud d'Ales, arrived at FIFA headquarters by taxi and entered the premises without making a comment. The 60-year-old Platini has rejected any notion of corruption, claiming the suspect payment was part of an oral contract for work he did as an advisor. Before his own hearing, Blatter strongly attacked the FIFA court, but still appeared in his own defense, accompanied by his Zurich-based lawyer Lorenz Erni. After the hearing Blatter's Virginia-based lawyer Richard Cullen issued a statement calling for an acquittal. If found guilty, Blatter and Platini can go to FIFA's appeal committee and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Ex-FIFA VP to be extradited to Uruguay Switzerland will extradite former FIFA vice president Eugenio Figueredo to his native Uruguay instead of the United States after his arrest in the corruption scandal rocking world football, a judge said Friday. "It's official, the Swiss authorities have agreed to Eugenio Figueredo's extradition to Uruguay," said Judge Juan Gomez, who is in charge of the Uruguayan case. "The Swiss authorities will have until Dec. 30 to complete the extradition." Figueredo, the former president of South American confederation CONMEBOL, was one of seven top football officials arrested in a raid on a Zurich luxury hotel in May, a raid that kicked off an unprecedented crisis at FIFA. He has been indicted in the United States on charges of soliciting multi-million-dollar bribes from sports marketing firms. But authorities in Uruguay launched their own investigation and subsequently charged him with abusing his office. Figueredo had agreed to be sent to Uruguay but was fighting extradition to the United States. — Agencies
