Fifa: Sepp Blatter & Michel Platini bans mark end - Greg Dyke

Both were found guilty of ethics breaches over a £1.3m ($2m) "disloyal payment" to Platini and suspended from all football-related activities.

Having previously backed Platini for the next Fifa presidency, Dyke said the FA had yet to decide who to support.

The FA "didn't know about Platini" and "were clearly disappointed", Dyke said.

"We thought he had done a very good job as president of Uefa," Dyke told BBC Radio 5 live of the 60-year-old Frenchman, who is also one of seven Fifa vice-presidents.

Platini and Blatter, 79, intend to appeal against their bans to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) and deny wrongdoing.

Five candidates will now contest the Fifa presidential election to replace Blatter, 79, at a special congress on 26 February.

"Having opted quite early for Platini - and we had no idea about any of this case - we haven't decided who we are going to support," said Dyke.

"We're going to look at all of the candidates in January and February and make up our minds quite late.

"Where Fifa finds itself is so difficult, to some extent it doesn't matter who becomes president. What matters is a proper reform programme so the excesses of the Blatter era can't be seen again."

The FA suspended its support for Platini's bid to become Fifa president in October pending the ethics inquiry.

The Scottish FA, who also supported Platini's bid to become Fifa president , said in a statement it would be "inappropriate to comment any further" on the verdict against Blatter and Platini while both are still able to appeal against their bans".

'Blatter could still get 51% to vote for him'

Dyke added he had "no sympathy" for Blatter and thought it was "sad" the Swiss could not "separate himself from Fifa".

"Any suggestion this corruption was happening, Blatter saw it as an attack on Fifa, which he saw as an attack on himself," added Dyke.

However, he said Blatter continued to retain the support of a significant number of Fifa's 209 members following his 17-year reign as president.

"This story of corruption has been around for a long time, the weird thing about so many members of Fifa is that they were prepared to go along with it.

"When I was trying to persuade people not to vote for Blatter last time, a lot of people just said to me that Blatter had been very good to them.

"I wouldn't be at all surprised if Blatter stood again tomorrow that he couldn't get 51% of the members to vote for him despite all this.

"This is clearly going through appeals in Fifa and further but I think this is not going to be the only problem Blatter faces in the years ahead."

'I can't see how you end Fifa'

Dyke said the FA wanted to see "an effective reform programme" going forward but added: "I can't see how you end Fifa."

"People have looked at it and they can't see a process by which you can get rid of it unless you can get a majority of the 209 members.

"There is a strong argument for rotation, for saying major tournaments are going to go to different parts of the world one after the other.

"But it's not just about the bidding process, it's the basis - there are certain federations such as Brazil where not only the present chairman is under arrest but so are the two previous ones."

Brazilian football president Marco Polo del Nero and predecessor Ricardo Teixeira were both charged by the United States Department of Justice this month. Another former Brazil FA chief, Jose Maria Marin, was extradited to the US on bribery charges in November.

(BBC)