The Football Association has yet to drop its support of Michel Platini for the Fifa presidency despite the 90-day suspension handed to Uefa’s top official along with his mentor at Fifa Sepp Blatter.
The FA threw its weight behind Platini in the summer, leading to disquiet in some quarters that it had been too hasty in declaring an interest.
The FA chairman Greg Dyke will give evidence to MPs on the FA’s backing for Platini at a parliamentary hearing in two weeks’ time.
Platini and Blatter were suspended on Thursday pending a criminal investigation into allegations the Swiss mis-sold a World Cup TV rights contract to the disgraced former Fifa official Jack Warner in 2006 and made a “disloyal payment” of £1.3m to Platini in 2011. Blatter and Platini deny any wrongdoing.
The president of the Confederation of African Football, Issa Hayatou, is taking over as acting president of Fifa but says he has no interest in entering the election for the permanent post next February.
The crusading MP Damian Collins questioned the FA’s decision earlier this month, telling Sky Sports: “I think many people want to know why the FA have nailed their colours to the mast backing Michel Platini before even the presidential nominations have closed.”
The FA has issued a statement following Platini’s suspension, saying: “The FA committed this summer to supporting Mr Platini in his bid to become the next president of Fifa. At the FA board meeting last week, we decided that remained our position while inquiries into certain allegations were being investigated.
“We now await the results of both the ethics committee inquiry and the investigation of the Swiss attorney general. We note that Mr Platini has issued a strong statement protesting his innocence.”
It added: “David Gill, the British member of the Fifa executive, along with Wolfgang Niersbach, the German representative, have today called for an emergency meeting of the Fifa executive to discuss this morning’s events.”
In addition to Platini and Blatter, the Fifa secretary general Jérôme Valcke, who has already been put on leave over allegations concerning the sale of World Cup tickets, was provisionally suspended for 90 days. Valcke has “unequivocally denied” any wrongdoing.
The former Fifa vice-president Chung Mong-joon, who had threatened to sue Blatter while claiming that he was being targeted on spurious grounds by the ethics committee to force him out of the presidential race, has been banned for six years and fined £67,000. “The bans come into force immediately,” said Fifa.
