The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has upheld the six-year ban from football imposed by FIFA ethics committee on the former FIFA president, Sepp Blatter.
Blatter was banned over ethics breaches while he headed football’s world governing body for 17 years.
He was indicted of making a £1.3m “disloyal payment” to ex-UEFA boss Michel Platini. Both, however, has denied wrongdoing.
CAS described the payment as “an undue gift” with “no contractual basis”.
Blatter said “no other verdict could be expected”.
He added: “I have to accept this decision. I have experienced much in my 41 years in Fifa. I mostly learned that you can win in sport, but you can also lose.”
In its written verdict, CAS said Blatter “requested the annulment of the ban but did not request a reduced penalty”.
“In any event, the panel determined that the sanction imposed was not disproportionate.”
FIFA suspended Blatter and Platini for eight years in December, but the bans were reduced to six years by its appeals committee.
In May, CAS reduced Platini’s ban to four years after he appealed.
The 61-year-old had sought to get the punishment overturned, but a three-man panel said it “was not convinced by the legitimacy” of the payment Blatter made to him in 2011.
Both men say it was for consultancy work Platini had done for Blatter between 1998 and 2002, and they had a “gentleman’s agreement” on when the balance would be settled.
The payment is also being looked into by Swiss prosecutors.
The 80-year-old Swiss’ administration ended in a corruption scandal in 2015.
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