>> i will fight for me, and i will fight for fifa. >> two of football's most powerful men vow to clear their names after being banned from fifa for eight years. hello, i'm lauren taylor. this is al jazeera live from london. also coming up, taliban gain control of key districts after an attack on an air base. the king of spain will

decide a new key of power in spain. hello, i'll fight for me and for fifa. those are the defiant words of sepp blatter, as he and fellow high ranking official michel platini are banned from having anything to do with the game for eight years. fifa ethic committee found they abused their positions after a two million dollars payment was made from blatter to platini eight years ago. both men continue to deny wrongdoing, but many believe that sepp blatter's career is almost certainly over and michel platini's opens of taking over fifa are all but finished. we talk with paul reese shortly, but first here is his report. >> sepp blatter once again the center of attention.

the 79-year-old swiss fighting to get into a press conference as he fights for his very future in football. on monday the suspended fifa president and the uefa chief michel platini will give a ban over a $2 million payment made by blatter to the frenchman in 2011. blatter's reputation seems to be tarnished forever, but he's not going willingly. >> i'll fight for me and i'll fight for fifa. suspended for eight years for what. >> sepp blatter would pass the top job to his friend uefa president michel platini, but blatter reneged on the deal and the friendship fell out. now the past has returned to haunt them. platini supposedly carried out work for blatter with no contract and payment made i in 2011, presidential election year. the ethics committee set up by

blatter in fifa delivered the ban. >> platini refused to attend the hearing. his lawyers said that the investigation committee already decided he was guilty. days after an fbi sweep in may he finally resigned. he wanted a hand over on his own terms the u.s. and swiss attorney generals and even his own allies decided otherwise. if platini wants any chance, he

needs to clear his name been january 26th. that will involve going through the fifa appeals committee and the arbitration of sport. before he can begin that process he needs a full written statement of the decision from the ethics committee a protest in itself could take weeks. one is a footballing legend. the other a political survivor both brought down by football's biggest ever scandal. >> what are the chances of their appeals succeeding? >> it will have to go through appeals first and then arbitrations of court. first there was the summary verdict not the full written

verdict giving the reasons for the punishment. that has to be received by blatter and platini before they can start the appeals process. blatter has until the fifa presidential election the congress on february 26th to get all that sorted, but it will be a very frustrated wait for michel platini, because he has to have his candidacy approved a month before those elections. if he's going to run, it has to be january 26th. we can't really know how successful those appeals will be. blatter has his current 90-day suspension turned down. but from the evidence we've seen it looks pretty unlikely that they'll be us. >> give all that what does it mean for those elections you mentioned in february?

>> well, platini was a real footballing man, the captain of france and won the championships in 1984 with france, and it was really him who was going to be expected to take over. if he's not involved in the election then it really opens up the election to, especially for the chief of football in about bahrain. he was appointed head of a committee that was looking into which football is in the country, which athletes had taken part in the pro democracy that were put down in bahrain, and to look at any punishment against them. he said that committee was never formed and fifa in investing his

application for president found no wrongdoing. but even if fifa gets a fresh start with someone else there is always this cloud seemingly hanging over the organization. >> thank you very much, indeed. >> taking control of a district in southern helmund province. in recent months the taliban has gained territory in the north, west and south stretching the resources of the afghan army. here are our reports. [ gunfire ] >> it's hard to fix your aim on a moving target. these soldiers and police officers are trying to do just that. >> we're fighting to remove the taliban from this area. we need the support of an army to help us. right now the area is controlled by taliban 37.

>> right now they're outgunned. taliban fighters have taken over important buildings in the town center. in helmund province. the governor posted this message on facebook. >> he also complained that soldiers and police officers aren't well-fed and don't have enough ammunition. it's unusual for a message like this to be posted on social media. it can be a sign of how desperate the situation is or how fed up local governments are, or maybe both. >> the problem is the local government, it is concentrating on making peace with the taliban and not really having a military

strategy to chase the taliban away from the centers of population. >> the afghan taliban appears to be gaining larger pockets of territory. two months ago it's fighters took k undz in the north. the more land they seize the more power they have in negotiations. al jazeera. >> and the taliban has claimed responsibility for an attack which killed six nato troops. it occurred at the largest u.s. military facility in afghanistan. spaniards are facing the possibility of going back to the polls after the most fragmented

election ever. neither parties have won a seat in government because of a new party. >> here is the man of the moment, pablo iglesias, champion of a new find of politics that is no longer cosy with big business, free of corruption. to make that happen he said he's ready to talk to anyone, but the old parties must recognize the changes that have taken place in spain. >> today is an historical day in spain. we're very happy for the fact that in spain the two-party system has ended, and we're happy because we have a starting of a new political era in our country. [ cheering ] >> but awkwardly for those who want change it's the incumbent people's party that came first,

and mariano rajoi will remain prime minister. >> we'll work very hard to try to maintain the government, and try to explain the different options that we're talking about our country. now there is no time for political opinion or political groups. we need to continue growing, and we need to continue making reforms that all the european countries are looking at spain and say you're going in the right direction. >> parliament will be set in january 13th that's when the king should nominate a candidate for prime minister. but if parliament cannot reach an agreement on that choice by the middle of february, then spain will have to hold new elections. barn my phillips, al jazeera, madrid. >> al jazeera is in madrid, david, we expect to hear from

the spanish prime minister in the next few hours. how can he turn this result around? >> i think the former prime minister like myself has been looking at a book of political algorithms trying to solve his problems, and there isn't one that he can come up with that does solve the problem that has left politicians with. the easiest and most straightforward would be a grand coalition between the socialists and the people's party. but during the run up to the elections in a debate with mariano rajoi, that he is was not an honorable man. how can they actually join in coalition. i don't think its compatible in law or any other coalition they've suggested.

they can't work with the policies they want if they're working together. what is the result of this? perhaps two weeks, perhaps two months of instability. political instability. maybe all of the politicians going off and spending more time with their families will allow them to come to some sort of deal to see things in perspective. but it if it does need a grand coalition, that will be quite extraordinary. after an election shatters the two-party system and if we have a coalition of those two old parties that will be a resurrection long before easter, and it's not what the people of spain have said they wanted as a result of this election. >> thank you very much, indeed. still to come on the program. no to peace keepers burundi's parliament rejects help from the african union to stem it's growing up rest. and india up holds the

release of the youngest convict in the gang rape and murder of a woman in new delhi.

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>> a reminder of the top stories on al jazeera. the suspended president of football's governing body has been banned from the game for eight years. sepp blatter insists he'll fight on after he and fellow fifa officials michel platini have been accused of abusing their positions. fighting in afghanistan continues after several days.

a new vote after a general election failed to produce a clear winner. and more now on our top stories. we'll take a look back at sepp blatter's rise to the top. he joined fifa 40 years ago. first as a technical director and then as the organization's secretary general. he was elected president in 1998 and has held the election ever since. platter has seen an huge expansion of fifa and is responsible for introducing the cup to new regions in africa and the middle east. >> s appeal--he is appealing, but do you think it will be the

end for sepp blatter. >> he has been trying to clear his name, but he has been unable to do that he didn't go all the way for sport presumably because he was waiting for this occasion to do this very thing. i think this is the end of a road, but sepp blatter is a fighter. >> he said he'll be back. but he also said that the ethics committee has no right to go against the president of fifa, without irony there. is that part of the problem? >> he woulset up the ethic the

committee to clamp down on those who would do wrong, and now he has been snared. you can't get a better shakespearean plot than this. >> what about michel platini. what is your prognosis with him? i think this is far reaching than for sepp blatter. sepp blatter is stepping down. highways been there for 40 years. he has been in charge for almost 18. but michel platini's star was on the rise. he's the man who was favorite before he, too, became caught up in the corruption scan da to take over for sepp blatter. now he, also, has to fight his way out of trouble i think with great difficulty. >> what does this mean does it really matter with the fans or does football just carry on and the shenanigans of fifa are

ordinary for fans. >> i've asked that question. football goes on. it goes on from grassroots, football in parks to the top of the premier league in england to international all over the world. in that respect no, nothing changes. but it is important that the organization which runs world football can be seen to have transparency and to have credibility. we now do have this reform process which is going to kick in, post congress after february whoever becomes president is going to be responsible that they would have a power to change the culture. >> well, there are five candidates. history shows that candidates drop out a lot of the time

before elections. at the moment probably sheik salman, who runs football will be in the top seat. but the man remaining michel platini as uefa's candidate is probably a close second. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> 85 people are still missing beneath a joined flow of mud and construction waste which buried 33 buildings in southern china. it happened in shown zen, a home to building and construction boom in recent years. >> at times like this manpower is not a problem in china. 1500 rescue workers are now searching for signs of life hoping survivors may have found an air pocket. if people are alive, they're in damaged buildings trapped under

mounds of mud. it's hazardous work. the ground is wet after heavy rain. by money afternoon, 24 hours after the landslide there was still hope. >> ed a 3:00 a.m. they decided to reinforce the machine worke workers. >> buildings damaged some simply compacted testament to the poor materials used in their construction. >> an area of 380,000 square meters has been covered in the mudslide disaster. the thickness of the mud ranges from a few meters to hundreds of

meters. >> many know where the mud came from. local residents say that waste from construction sites had been dumped here for years. according to chinese media reports it was 100 meters high and apparently legal. this was china's latest manmade disaster. it's only a few months since an chemical explosions, chemicals that were kept in a warehouse. now china must decide if any laws were broken here as well. >> india's supreme court has upheld the release of the youngest convict in the 2012 gang rape and murder of a medical student. the convict was 17 at the time of his arrest has served the maximum sentence of three years for a juvenile. after widespread protest they have proposed changes to the

law. >> burundi's parliament has voted against allowing african union peace keepers in to control growing unrest. there are worries that the country is headed to civil war. more than 400 people have been killed when the president decided to run for a third term. the government calls the decision an invasion. >> members of parliament rejected the position to deploy 5,000 troops to burundi. they say they did not want foreign forces on their soil, and that the government of burundi was able to protect civilians. they also said they will appoint a mission of inquirely to look at the killings that have happened in the country, in particular the killings that happened on 11th of december. on that friday that 87 people were killed in the capital of

burundi with about a run di calling it's bluff the african union only has one option, to go back to the drawing board and invoke its arsenal which allows it to intervene on a member country without the consent of that country's president. the summit is held twice a year, and article 4 can only be invoked by an african president, although they have not agreed to invoking it in the past. that's where burundi might get its escape. >> praising last week's referendum which cleared the way for him to run for a third term. but he failed to make clear if he would be standing in the 2017 elections. rwanda's elections show that he

woulthey would sport support the changes. >> the skills have been passed down from one generation in the family to another. he considers the river his life and home. >> the accumulation of salt and overfishing have been effecting the life loads. this is a meeting point of

nigeria's two biggest rivers. for generation this is used to be a very busy hub for shipping, fishing and farming activities but in rein years people earning a living from the rivers has seen their fortunes dry up. many fishermen have had to switch jobs to keep their--to feed their families. >> the fishing supply has depleted. you cannot just sustain yourself with fishing today. that's why we're looking for alternatives. >> boats don't use the waterways as much as they used to. and the government decision to dredge the rivers has made the situation worse. >> the decision to dredge the

rivers, the government has attempted to dredge the rivers, most people who have spent time dredging, debris is cleared and the flow is improved, but we have not seen that. my understanding is that only certain channels have been dredged to this part. that even that has not come to the level that has impacted on the economy of this state. >> for now fishermen can only watch and hope that one day soon the fish will return and restore their liv the fishing. >> in part four of the rivers of life series we look how the u.s. is trying to stem the flow of toxic material from the waterways. hundreds of families have lost homes to bush fire. the worst is in melbourne where

forecasters forecast more hot windy weather on christmas day. many try to contain the blaze over the state border in new south wales burning near the city of newcastle. >> our plan was to pack up the valuables and to leave, and we got a load in the car. the fire turned, that's all the time we had that's all the time we had. >> an unmanned russian cargo ship has been hallelujahed. it will deliver fuel, water and food and in preparation for its arrival two nassau astronauts took an unplanned spacewalk outside of the space station hoping to fix a broken railcar on the station's robotic arm

before the rocket docks on monday. you can find more on our website. www.aljazeera.com. and you can also watch us live by clicking on the watch now icon. once again, www.aljazeera.com. >> a taliban attack in afghanistan and american soldiers could be among the dead. crowded field of potential presidential nominees shrinking by one. refusing to go without a fight, the head of international soccer vowing to appeal his eight-year ban.