FORMER FIFA president Sepp Blatter is facing another corruption investigation after the ethics committee of world football's governing body announced it was opening proceedings against him and key lieutenants Jerome Valcke and Markus Kattner.

The committee's investigatory chamber will investigate possible violations of FIFA's rulebook that relate to bribery, conflicts of interest and general conduct, while Kattner faces a further charge related to a breach of confidentiality.

The case is understood to be based on the huge salaries and bonuses the three men allegedly paid themselves at FIFA, and the alleged leaking of information about new FIFA president Gianni Infantino to the media.

A FIFA statement said: "The deputy chairman of the investigatory chamber of the ethics committee, Djimbaraye Bourngar, has opened formal proceedings against Joseph Blatter, former president of FIFA, Jerome Valcke, former secretary general of FIFA, and Markus Kattner, former acting secretary general and director of finance & corporate services.

"The investigatory chamber will investigate possible violations of art. 13 (general rules of conduct), art. 15 (loyalty), art. 19 (conflicts of interest), art. 20 (offering and accepting gifts and other benefits) and art. 21 (bribery and corruption) of the FIFA code of ethics in the context of salaries and bonuses paid to Mr Blatter, Mr Valcke and Mr Kattner, as well as other provisions included in the contracts of these three individuals."

The 80-year-old Blatter, who ran FIFA from 1998 to 2015, is currently waiting for the result of his appeal against an existing ban from football for a payment he made to former protege and UEFA president Michel Platini.

That appeal was heard at the Court of Arbitration for Sport last month and if Platini's earlier case is a guide, football's most infamous administrator can expect a reduction in his ban from six years to four.

Valcke, who served as Blatter's right-hand man from 2007 to 2015, has also already been banned from all football activities by FIFA. The 55-year-old Frenchman was given a 12-year ban in February for misconduct related to his expenses, the use of FIFA resources and the sale of World Cup tickets.

Kattner, who was Valcke's deputy, has not been sanctioned before but was unceremoniously sacked in May.

A month later, the American law firm FIFA hired to help repair the damage from its well-documented corruption scandal alleged that Blatter, Kattner and Valcke had shared £60million in pay rises and bonuses between 2011 and 2015.

This information has been passed onto the Swiss authorities as they appear to breach corporate governance laws.

With the careers of these men in sports politics already surely finished, it is debatable what more FIFA can do to them. But this move may provide some good clues as to how that Swiss criminal inquiry will go. It will also give Infantino another chance to show his commitment to a fresh start at FIFA's Zurich headquarters.

The need for him to keep doing that cannot be underestimated as the earlier Swiss and US investigations into FIFA's wider corrupt practices over the last decade or so continue, and the Swiss are still looking at the 2010 decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.

And if that was not bad enough, there are also inquiries under way into the 2006 and 2010 World Cups that could bring even more embarrassment and shame to FIFA's door.