Sepp Blatter will have his final Fifa perks — a Mercedes limousine and personal chauffeur — removed today after his failure to overturn a six-year ban.
The former Fifa president had been permitted to keep the privileges while he was contesting the ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport but lost his appeal this month.
A Fifa spokesman confirmed that Blatter had been asked to return the vehicle by today and he will no longer have a chauffeur at his disposal. The 80-year-old still lives at the apartment he occupied when he was Fifa president but now has to pay rent to the world governing body.
The luxurious Mercedes will be returned to the dealer, and as of January 1 all Fifa executives will be transported in cars provided by the sponsors Hyundai.
Blatter was banned over a SwFr 2 million (about £1.5 million) payment he authorised to former Uefa president Michel Platini in 2011, 12 years after the pair said they made a verbal agreement for the money.
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Meanwhile, plans to bring in penalty shootouts to settle all drawn matches in an expanded World Cup have moved a step closer after the proposal — revealed by The Times last week — was included in a secret document sent to Fifa Council members.
The document, marked “confidential”, puts forward suggestions for an expanded tournament, with the recommended version being 48 teams, 16 more countries than at present, split into 16 groups of three with the top two going through to a knockout round of 32.
That system, however, creates a “sporting integrity” issue with the final match in the group, in that in many situations a draw would send both teams through to the knockout phase at the expense of the third team.
Another idea mentioned in the document is to provide big financial incentives for wins in the group phase.
The European Clubs’ Association (ECA) has declared its opposition to the Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s expansion plans. ECA chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said: “We have to focus on the sport again. Politics and commerce should not be the exclusive priority in football. In the interest of the fans and the players, we urge Fifa not to increase the number of World Cup participants.”
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The ECA executive board — whose members include chief executives of Arsenal, Celtic and Manchester United: Ivan Gazidis, Peter Lawwell and Ed Woodward — has written to Infantino to protest against the idea, citing the “unacceptable” number of games.
The plan for 48 teams would mean 80 matches instead of 64 but Fifa says they could still be played within 32 days and, as now, no country would play more than seven games.