THE Football Association refused to pull their support of Uefa president Michel Platini to take over Fifa yesterday, despite the 90-day suspension handed to him by Fifa’s ethics committee in the wake of the Swiss criminal investigation.

Outgoing president Sepp Blatter has also been suspended for the same duration, all but signalling the end of his 17-year tenure at the head of football’s world governing body.

And the suspension is also likely to end any chance Platini had had of taking over the reins at Fifa next year.

The duo are being investigated over a nine-year delayed payment of £1.35 million from Blatter to Platini in 2011. Blatter has also been accused of selling undervalue broadcasting contracts to former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner in 2005.

But despite this, the FA are still planning to back the Frenchman to succeed Blatter at the emergency elections in February, saying in a statement: “The FA committed this summer to supporting 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 Platini has issued a strong statement protesting his innocence.”

The news broke of the suspension late Wednesday evening, which led to Platini releasing a statement prior to the confirmation that reports were “insidious” leaks that were “essentially an attempt to damage my reputation.”

No comment was released after the confirmation of the suspension but Blatter, through his lawyer Richard Cullen, said that the ethics committee failed to follow procedure and based its decision on a “misunderstanding.”

“The attorney general in Switzerland opened an investigation but brought no charge against the president,” said Cullen.

“In fact, the prosecutors will be obliged by law to dismiss the case if their investigation, barely two weeks old, does not establish sufficient evidence.

“President Blatter looks forward to the opportunity to present evidence that will demonstrate that he did not engage in any misconduct, criminal or otherwise.”

Issa Hayatou was appointed the acting president of Fifa while Spain’s Angel Maria Villar is expected to head Uefa.

But Hayatou’s arrival will do little to improve the organisation’s credibility as he was reprimanded by the International Olympic Committee over payments he accepted from marketing firm ISL in the mid-1990s.

Secretary-general Jerome Valcke was also handed a 90-day ban by the ethics committee.