Sepp Blatter & Michel Platini lose Fifa appeals but bans reduced

Outgoing Fifa president Sepp Blatter and suspended Uefa boss Michel Platini have had bans from all football-related activities upheld.

But the suspensions have been reduced from eight to six years by Fifa's appeals committee.

Both were found guilty of breaches surrounding a £1.3m ($2m) "disloyal payment" to Platini.

They both deny any wrongdoing and have said they will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Blatter and Platini said the payment honoured a verbal or gentleman's agreement made in 1998 for work carried out by the Frenchman when he was a technical advisor for Blatter.

Blatter, 79, added in a statement that he was "very disappointed by the appeal committee of Fifa".

Platini, 60, said it was "insulting and shameful" and a "political decision".

The bans were reduced by two years after the committee considered the duo's "activities and services rendered to Fifa, Uefa and football".

The election to find Blatter's replacement takes place in Friday.

Fifa boss since 1998, the Swiss had already announced he was quitting after reports emerged he was under investigation in the United States.

Platini had been tipped as a future leader of football's world governing body and is a three-time European Footballer of the Year.

He is also a former captain of France and has been in charge of Uefa - European football's governing body - since 2007.

In a statement released after the announcement, Platini said the accusations were without foundation and completely made up "beyond reality".

He said the communication of the decision was done with "an unbearable arrogance" and that Friday's congress would be remembered in history with the "mark of illegitimacy".

"I am the victim of a system which has only had one goal - to stop me standing for the president of Fifa," the Frenchman added.