Sepp Blatter disappointed soccer ban upheld by FIFA appeal body

Longtime FIFA President Sepp Blatter is disappointed the global soccer body's appeal committee upheld his ban from the sport, he told a Swiss newspaper in an interview published on Friday.

"I am deeply disappointed," Blatter told the Aargauer Zeitung when asked about the decision to uphold the ban.

"That of all things the independent appeal committee, on which there are many old comrades, bans me, is really hard on me. But for what? For a financial procedure that has nothing to do with ethics."

Blatter and European soccer head Michel Platini had their bans for ethics violations upheld on Wednesday, although they were reduced from eight years to six. The pair were banned over a payment of 2 million Swiss francs ($2.74 million) made to Platini in 2011 by FIFA with Blatter's approval for work done a decade earlier.