By Andrew Warshaw
April 18 – Michel Platini is facing a race against time to be able to resume his role as UEFA president before the 54-nation confederation’s annual congress in Budapest at the start of next month.
Platini has learned that he will appear before the Court of Arbitration for Sport on April 29 to contest his six-year ban, four days before UEFA’s members convene in the Hungarian capital.
Platini is banned from all football activities by FIFA’s ethics committee and, having failed to clear his name in front of FIFA’s appeals committee, has gone to sport’s highest court to try and get the ruling overturned.
Platini was originally banned for eight years just before Christmas over accepting that SFr2 million ‘disloyal payment’ from FIFA in 2011, approved by then president Sepp Blatter, who is also suspended. The suspension was cut from eight to six years by the FIFA appeal committee but not enough to prevent the Frenchman taking his case further.
Platini’s suspension prevented him from standing for the FIFA presidency in February which he has long claimed, somewhat unconvincingly, was all a calculated conspiracy. Now he looks highly likely to be denied a triumphant return at UEFA’s Budapest summit unless CAS can reach a positive verdict within four days.
More important for Platini, however, is clearing his name in time for the European Championship finals which begin June 10 in his homeland.
UEFA are giving Platini as long as it takes to prove his innocence and says it will not hold elections to replace him until all his appeals are exhausted. But although he has been assured by organisers that he can attend as a guest, the prospect of being barred from running the show and being the public face of the tournament is unthinkable for Platini who is relying on the CAS to find in his favour and rule that FIFA’s own ethics watchdog overstepped the mark in banning him.
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