Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini banned from all football activities for eight years by FIFA.

. Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini banned by FIFA over payment in 2011
. Both have been fined and will be unable to run for presidency in February
. FIFA statement says both were in situation of conflict of interest
. Blatter has been fined £33,700, while Platini has been fined £53,940
. Blatter and Platini found in breach of 'offering and accepting gifts' by FIFA
. Both protested innocence, as they said the payment was made following verbal agreement

Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini have been banned from all football activities for eight years and fined by the FIFA adjudicatory ethics chamber.
The decision, revealed in Zurich on Monday, brings a definitive end to Blatter and Platini's control of the sport with both unable to run for FIFA presidency on February 26.
The investigative arm had recommended lifetime bans after the undocumented consultancy fee of £1.35million outgoing FIFA prsident Blatter paid UEFA president Platini nine years after the work was done.

The charges found proven included offering and accepting gifts, conflict of interest, and violating their fiduciary duty to FIFA.
The FIFA statement on Monday read: 'The adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee chaired by Mr Hans Joachim Eckert has banned Mr Joseph S. Blatter, President of FIFA, for eight years and Mr Michel Platini, Vice-President and member of the Executive Committee of FIFA and President of UEFA, for eight years from all football-related activities (administrative, sports or any other) on a national and international level. The bans come into force immediately.'
'The proceedings against Mr Blatter primarily related to a payment of CHF 2,000,000 (£1.35m) transferred in February 2011 from FIFA to Mr Platini.
'Mr Blatter, in his position as President of FIFA, authorised the payment to Mr Platini which had no legal basis in the written agreement signed between both officials on 25 August 1999.

Neither in his written statement nor in his personal hearing was Mr Blatter able to demonstrate another legal basis for this payment. His assertion of an oral agreement was determined as not convincing and was rejected by the chamber.'
Blatter has been fined £33,700, while Platini has been fined £53,940.
Outgoing FIFA president Blatter and UEFA president Platini had claimed the payment had been made in 2011 following a verbal agreement between the pair when the Frenchman worked for Blatter from 1998 to 2002.
The explanation was rejected as 'not convincing' by the ethics committee, who added that the evidence has not been sufficient to secure charges of corruption.

German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, the chairman of FIFA's adjudicatory chamber, held disciplinary hearings for the pair last week.
Platini boycotted his hearing in Zurich on Friday in protest, claiming a decision already appeared to have been made. His lawyers attended, but it looks as though the Frenchman is already preparing to take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The £1.35 payment at the centre of the case was made to Platini in February 2011. The Frenchman and Blatter deny any wrongdoing and say the payment was honouring an agreement made in 1998 for work carried out between 1998 and 2002 when Platini worked as a technical advisor for the FIFA president.
The payment was not part of Platini's written contract but the pair insisted that it was a verbal agreement which is legal under Swiss law.
The timing of the payment raised eyebrows however -- it took place nine years after Platini had stopped working for FIFA, and was made while Blatter was seeking support for a fourth term as president and facing a major challenge from Qatar's Mohamed Bin Hammam.

The payment was made less than a month after a meeting between Platini and Bin Hammam where it is reported that they discussed the presidency. Two months later, Platini and UEFA's executive committee endorsed Blatter's candidacy. Blatter and Platini say the payment was completely unconnected with the presidential elections.
Platini has said he had not been paid the full amount agreed in 1998 because of FIFA's financial situation at the time.
Blatter insists the late payment in 2011 followed an oral agreement with Platini, of which no record exists. He wrote FIFA's 209 member associations protesting his innocence last week, saying he had been employed by FIFA for and 'always performed my duties to the best of my knowledge and belief and at all times faced up to the challenges with respect'.