Sepp Blatter has filed an official appeal against his suspension from football by Fifa’s ethics committee.

Blatter, the Swiss who has been president of Fifa since 1998, was suspended on Thursday by the association’s ethics committee. The 79-year-old is currently facing a Swiss criminal investigation.

Klaus Stohlker, Blatter’s friend and adviser, said: “He has appealed already to Fifa’s appeal committee. He is defending his position and he is sure that he will be found not guilty.”

In the immediate aftermath of the suspension, Blatter’s lawyers said in a statement that he was looking forward to presenting evidence that will prove he did not engage in any misconduct.

The former Fifa vice-president Chung Mong-joon also said on Friday he will appeal to the court of arbitration for sport in a bid to get the sanction overturned. South Korean Chung was given a six-year ban from the game on Thursday and said in a statement that ruling was a “shameful attempt to punish” his open criticism of world soccer’s governing body.

Meanwhile, Fifa’s executive committee is likely to decide next week whether to hold an emergency meeting following the suspension of president Blatter.

A spokesman said on Friday that executive committee members would consult with the acting president Issa Hayatou as part of standard procedure before deciding whether to hold the meeting. It was not immediately clear what might be the agenda of such a meeting.

The German Football Federation president Wolfgang Niersbach called for an extraordinary meeting after the bans on Thursday and was swiftly backed by the Asian federation chief Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa.

Both are members of the executive committee, whose next scheduled meeting is in Zurich in December.

According to the Fifa statutes, the president must convene a meeting if it is requested by at least 13 members.