Fifa president Joseph Blatter is appealing against his suspension by the ethics committee of the ruling football body after all, his American lawyer Richard Cullen said early today.

Cullen told dpa that Blatter’s appeal was filed yesterday to the Fifa appeal committee.

The news came after Blatter’s adviser Klaus Stoehlker said that an appeal against the provisional suspension would make no sense.

The ethics committee yesterday banned Blatter and Michel Platini, the Uefa president and Fifa vice-president, for 90 days in connection with a criminal investigation by Swiss authorities in which Blatter is suspected of mismanagement and Platini is named as the recipient of a ‘disloyal payment’ from Fifa.

Platini said yesterday he would appeal the ruling, and like Blatter he protested his innocence.

Blatter and Platini are banned from all football activities for 90 days or until the appeal committee nullifies the ban. The ethics committee can meanwhile extend the ban for another 45 days.

Platini is a candidate for the Fifa presidency at an extraordinary congress on Feb 26. However he must first go through an integrity check. Another potential candidate, Chung Mong Joon of South Korea, was banned for six years yesterday over other issues.

According to Fifa statutes, senior vice-president Issa Hayatou of Cameroon is the acting Fifa president.

- dpa