ZURICH — Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini can now launch appeals against their eight-year bans from football after FIFA's ethics committee judges sent them full written reasons for the verdicts.
Lawyers for Blatter and Platini needed the document received Saturday to file formal appeals with FIFA, world soccer's governing body.
FIFA refused Platini's request last month to bypass its process and appeal directly to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
"The adjudicatory chamber of the independent ethics committee has fulfilled its commitment to provide the grounds for the respective decisions to Mr. Blatter and Mr. Platini within the first half of January 2016 as they had previously been informed," the judges said in a statement
Blatter wants to be cleared before the Feb.