Sepp Blatter sponsors". Reports speculated that it appears that Blatter will step down at the "extraordinary congress" though the situation remains vague. On 25 September, Swiss investigators announced that they were investigating Blatter in relation to payments made to UEFA president Michel Platini. While Blatter and Platini denied any impropriety around the payments, major FIFA sponsors Coca-Cola, Visa Inc., McDonald's, and Budweiser issued public statements requesting that he resign for the good of FIFA. On 8 October 2015 he was suspended from FIFA for 90 days while investigations into payments made to Michel Platini were conducted. FIFA said in a statement: "The
Sepp Blatter Portugal and the Netherlands, which saw referee Valentin Ivanov issue a record 16 yellow cards and four red cards, Blatter was said to have lambasted the officiating referee, and said that Ivanov should have given himself a yellow card for his poor performance as a referee. He later claimed to regret his words and promised to officially apologise to Ivanov. However, this apology was never given, and the referee was removed from further officiating. Blatter was criticized in 2007 and 2008 for trying to change European Union employment law regarding the number of foreign players that football clubs could field