ZURICH: FIFA’s ethics watchdog has rejected suspended President Sepp Blatter’s claim that he is not subject to its rules and that only Congress can bar him from his role as head of the scandal-plagued global soccer body.

Blatter has been suspended for 90 days along with European soccer boss Michel Platini, engulfed by a deepening corruption scandal as the sport faces criminal investigations in Switzerland and the United States.

FIFA’s Ethics Committee is investigating their conduct and they could face a much longer suspensions when the final verdict in the case is announced, probably in December.

In a Swiss television interview on Wednesday, Blatter compared himself to a head-of-state who could only be removed by parliament. He said that it was up to FIFA’s Congress, consisting of the 209 national football associations who each hold one vote, to oust him.

However, Andreas Bantel, spokesman for the Ethics Committee, told Reuters on Thursday. “The FIFA code of ethics applies to anyone who is involved in football worldwide and there are absolutely no exceptions whatsoever.”

The FIFA corruption scandal broke in May with a police raid and arrests of soccer officials at a Zurich hotel just before a congress of the body. Some 14 officials, including two former vice presidents, have been indicted in the United States.

Blatter also faces a criminal investigation in Switzerland over a 2 million Swiss franc ($1.95 million) payment from FIFA to Platini in 2011 for work completed by the Frenchman nine years earlier.

Platini, who had been favorite to replace Blatter at the next election in February, has been barred from the FIFA presidential race because of his ban, although he could be allowed back in if he wins an appeal.

48 watches donated to charity

Meanwhile, 50 luxury watches confiscated from football officials who had received them as “gifts” ahead of the World Cup in Brazil have been donated to charity, FIFA’s ethics committee said Thursday.

The watches, estimated to be worth 25,000 Swiss francs ($24,400, 23,000 euros) apiece, were given to streetfootballworld, an international network of groups which uses football to help young people.

Ahead of last year’s World Cup, the Brazilian Football Confederation handed out 65 gift bags each containing a Parmigiani timepiece to FIFA Executive Committee officials and members of the 32 competing associations.

The gifts created a furor at the time but now disgraced FIFA bosses, including president Sepp Blatter, denied any corruption.

However, the ethics committee’s investigative branch has determined that the watches were “unauthorized gifts,” and called on officials to hand them over.

It agreed not to open formal ethical proceedings against anyone who complied.

The ethics committee said in a statement its probe had determined that “from the initially intended 65 watches offered by the CBF to football officials, several officials had, in fact, not received a watch.”

It said that once all potential recipients had been contacted, 48 watches were handed over.

The football charity will “directly invest all resources generated through the sale of the watches into initiatives across Brazil that use football to drive social change,” it said, adding that the matter was now considered closed.

When the ethics committee ordered that the watches be handed over in September 2014, now embattled UEFA president Michel Platini publicly balked, saying he was “surprised” by the decision.

“I was not raised like that,” he said, declaring it was bad manners to return gifts and insisting he would instead establish the true worth of the watch and contribute the amount to a charity.

Platini, who until recently was the favorite to take over the reins at FIFA, has been suspended for 90 days and could now be facing a lifetime ban over a suspect payment, amid the massive scandal rocking world football’s governing body.

Current FIFA president Blatter, who has also been slapped with a 90-day suspension, also brushed aside the watch controversy when it hit the headlines last year, insisting there was no corruption involved and describing it as “a non-problem.”

Blatter has agreed to step down as FIFA boss following a special election in February, a concession made days after the United States charged 14 ex-FIFA officials and sports marketing executives with corruption amounting to $150-million going back decades.

Those indictments kicked off an unprecedented scandal at FIFA, sparking widespread calls for reform.