LONDON ¨C Former Argentina captain Diego Maradona says longtime FIFA president Sepp Blatter and European soccer chief Michel Platini should have been given life imprisonment rather than six-year bans from soccer for ethics violations.
The pair were suspended for eight years ¡ª reduced to six this week ¡ª for a payment of 2 million Swiss francs ($2.03 million) made to the Frenchman in 2011 by FIFA with Blatter¡¯s approval for work done a decade earlier.
¡°It seems like the FIFA ethics committee was wrong,¡± Maradona, 55, told Reuters TV.
¡°Having so much evidence against these people and having seen how they were robbing for so many years, they should have given both life imprisonment.¡±
FIFA is caught in the worst crisis in its 112-year history with scores of people, including many former FIFA officials, charged with corruption-related offenses in the U.S. Blatter is among those who also face a parallel Swiss investigation.
Maradona believes Blatter¡¯s replacement at FIFA should not be motivated by money.
¡°I would like to see a president who is not interested in becoming a millionaire thanks to the ball, the sponsors or the World Cup ¡ª because that is where they collect a good load of money,¡± he said.
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