 "Blatter, Platini ban 'punishment enough': Ex-UEFA chief")
Former UEFA president Lennart Johansson said today's ruling banning FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA chief Michel Platini from football for eight years for a suspect payment "was punishment enough."
"I think this is punishment enough, because it means they can never come back," Johansson told the Swedish daily Expressen.
Platini and Blatter were slapped with the ban after a FIFA ethics tribunal found they had abused their positions when Blatter authorised a 2 million Swiss franc ($2 million/1.8 million euros) payment to Platini.
Blatter had claimed that the payment to Platini was approved by UEFA's executive committee, but Johansson told Expressen: "That's a pure lie."
Johansson, who had previously stood as a candidate and lost against both Blatter and Platini in elections, said he had finally been proven right.
"I feel no sense of victory, but I think I have been proven right in hindsight. All I remarked on, all I fought for, I have not done in vain. The truth will always come out eventually -- and it has done so now. Otherwise, I feel no satisfaction," Johansson told the newspaper.
"I think this is punishment enough, because it means they can never come back," Johansson told the Swedish daily Expressen.
Platini and Blatter were slapped with the ban after a FIFA ethics tribunal found they had abused their positions when Blatter authorised a 2 million Swiss franc ($2 million/1.8 million euros) payment to Platini.
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Blatter, FIFA's president since 1998, was fined 50,000 Swiss francs while Platini, the head of Europe's governing body UEFA, was fined 80,000 Swiss francs.
Blatter had claimed that the payment to Platini was approved by UEFA's executive committee, but Johansson told Expressen: "That's a pure lie."
Johansson, who had previously stood as a candidate and lost against both Blatter and Platini in elections, said he had finally been proven right.
"I feel no sense of victory, but I think I have been proven right in hindsight. All I remarked on, all I fought for, I have not done in vain. The truth will always come out eventually -- and it has done so now. Otherwise, I feel no satisfaction," Johansson told the newspaper.