Blatter faces 90 day suspension from FIFA

Re-elected FIFA President Sepp Blatter gestures during news conference after an extraordinary Executive Committee meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, in this May 30, 2015 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

ZURICH - FIFA president Sepp Blatter faces an imminent 90 day suspension from football if the governing body's ethics judge backs a prosecutor's recommendation, a close friend and former advisor to Blatter said on Wednesday.

Blatter's long-term confidant Klaus Stoehlker said the decision by judge Hans-Joachim Eckert on the provisional suspension was expected by Friday.

"There is no final decision, this is a recommendation from the lower part of the Ethics Committee to the upper part," said Stoehlker, who added that Blatter had been informed of the development.

"President Blatter will be in his office at FIFA tomorrow," he said.

FIFA's ethics code provides for a representative of the Investigatory Chamber to look into a case and make a request to Eckert's Adjudicatory Chamber to take action.

While Stoehlker said Blatter was "very calm", a suspension would be a humiliating outcome for the 79-year-old who has been at FIFA for 40 years.

Even after the arrests of FIFA officials in May, which plunged the organisation into crisis, Blatter promised to lead a reform process before standing down in February.

If Eckert does opt for a suspension it would also leave the strife-ridden body without either of its top two officials.

Secretary general Jerome Valcke, Blatter's right-hand man for the past eight years, was suspended last month after allegations he was involved in a scheme to sell 2014 World Cup tickets at a marked-up price. Valcke denied the charges.

Stoehlker's comments were not able to be verified by FIFA bodies and FIFA's media department directed inquiries to Blatter's lawyers who said he had not been informed of any decision.