Sepp Blatter's six-year ban from football has been upheld following his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Monday afternoon.
The ban stems from ethics breaches during his 17-year spell as head of world football's governing body, which emerged last year.
Mr. Blatter was found to have made a "disloyal payment" to former UEFA president Michel Platini (amounting to €1.7m), for which they both received eight-year bans. These were reduced to six years by FIFA's appeal committee. The pair deny any wrongdoing. CAS reduced Mr. Platini's ban to four years after an appeal.
"I have experienced much in my 41 years in FIFA," Mr. Blatter said today in a statement. "I mostly learned that you can win in sport, but you can also lose.
"Nevertheless I look back with gratitude to all the years, in which I was able to realize my ideals for football and serve FIFA."
CAS said in the statement: "By approving a payment of CHF 2 million [Swiss Francs] to Mr Platini in 2011 for the balance of work carried out under the alleged oral agreement, Mr Blatter breached the FIFA Code of Ethics since the payment amounted to an undue gift as it had no contractual basis.
"The Panel further found that Mr Blatter unlawfully awarded contributions to Mr Platini under the FIFA Executive Committee retirement scheme which also amounted to an undue gift."
They say that Mr Blatter "requested the annulment of the ban but did not request a reduced penalty". He will remain banned from taking part in any football-related activity at national and international level for six years as from 8 October 2015 and must pay a fine of 50,000 Swiss Francs.
Both Mr Blatter and Mr Platini claim that the payment was made to the former French international for consultancy work completed between 1998 and 2002. Swiss prosecutors continue to investigate the claims.
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