FIFA President Sepp Blatter and vice-president Michel Platini are due to attend personal hearings with FIFA’s ethics judge starting on December 16.
Both men are fighting to salvage their careers and reputation and are currently serving 90-day provisional suspensions from world football, Thisdaylive.com reported.
The suspensions were imposed following allegations a $2 million “disloyal payment” was made between them in 2011. Final verdicts could be published as early as December 21.
Both deny wrongdoing and claim they had a verbal contract for Platini to receive backdated money for work he carried out for FIFA between 1998 and 2002.
The BBC has learned the hearings will take place before the FIFA ethics adjudicator Hans Joachim Eckert at an undisclosed location. Both men will have separate hearings which, taken together, could stretch over three days. Both are entitled to bring legal teams with them.
Last month FIFA’s ethics investigators submitted a final report into the claims against the men, which include mismanagement and conflict of interest rule breaches.
Lawyers for Platini say investigators have recommended a life ban for the Frenchman. It is unknown what punishment was suggested for Blatter but any guilty verdict would bring an ignominious end to his long career at FIFA. Both men can seek appeals against guilty verdicts with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Platini still hopes to be a candidate in the FIFA presidential election on February 26, 2016. However, he will only be entitled to enter the ballot if he clears his name in sufficient time prior to polling day.
Defiance
Blatter is unwilling to accept any guilty judgment against him, believing only FIFA’s 209 member nations can remove him from the presidency.
The FBI was closing on the very center of power at FIFA on Saturday night after two high-ranking officials were named as “co-conspirators” in a $10 million bribe allegedly paid to bring the 2010 World Cup finals to South Africa.
A new indictment published by the US Department of Justice, following the dawn raid on Thursday of the governing body’s luxury hotel and arrest of another two of its vice-presidents, identified two further individuals involved in the “scheme”.
