Fifa president Sepp Blatter and Uefa boss Michel Platini have been suspended for eight years from all football-related activities following an ethics investigation.

The bans come into force immediately.

Fifa boss since 1998, Blatter, 79, had already announced he was stepping down ahead of February’s presidential election.

Platini, 60, was tipped as a future leader of football’s world governing body and had hoped to succeed Blatter.

A three-time European Footballer of the Year and former captain of France, he had been in charge of Uefa – European football’s governing body – since 2007.

The pair, who have also been fined, had been suspended for 90 days in October while an investigation was carried out into a £1.3m ($2m) payment by Fifa to Platini in 2011.

Both men have denied any wrongdoing.

The bans

Blatter and Platini were found guilty of ethics code breaches surrounding a £1.3m ($2m) “disloyal payment” made to the Frenchman in 2011.

Both claimed the payment was honouring an agreement made in 1998 for work carried out between 1998 and 2002 when Platini worked as a technical adviser for Blatter.

The payment was not part of Platini’s written contract but the pair insisted it was a verbal agreement, which is legal under Swiss law.

German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, the chairman of Fifa’s adjudicatory chamber, held disciplinary hearings for the pair last week.

Charges included conflict of interest, false accounting and non co-operation, with investigators submitting a file of more than 50 pages.