By Andrew Warshaw
November 20 – Michel Platini has followed Sepp Blatter’s move in going to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to try and get his 90-day provisional suspension lifted. Platini is rapidly losing the battle to clear his name in time to take over from Blatter on February 26 after both had their initial appeals turned down by FIFA’s appeals committee but the UEFA president’s lawyers insisted he has been untreated fairly.
Both men deny any wrongdoing over the SFr 2million payment made by FIFA to Platini in 2011 related to work that the former three-time European Footballer of the Year carried out at least nine years previously. The money has been potentially declared as a ‘disloyal payment’ by Swiss investigators.
Thomas Clay, a member of Platini’s legal team, slammed the appeals committee judgement. “It’s a kind of grand slam of violations of all the principles of a fair trial,” Clay told L’Equipe. “I’ve never seen that, even in totalitarian countries. It’s outrageous.
“Michel Platini wasn’t able to explain himself because he was heard by an investigator who doesn’t listen to anyone and judged by an appeals committee made up of people who all live in completely different time zones. In fact, there’s a clear willingness to do everything to prevent Michel Platini from standing in the FIFA presidential election on February 26.”
Despite Clay’s comments, it is understood that Platini was actually questioned for four hours by ethics investigators. Nevertheless he added: “It’s probable that the CAS will reverse FIFA’s judgement. What’s happening to Michel Platini is a Kafkaesque trial. Someone says to him that he’s suspended, they don’t say why, and then they ask him to prove his innocence.”
Platini’s lawyers also question the fact that the appeals committee took over two weeks to communicate its verdict to their client In a separate statement, Platini’s spokesman Jean-Christophe Alquier implied the CAS would take the facts on their merits and show no political bias.
“After having exhausted internal procedures at FIFA, (the rejection of the appeal) will allow Michel Platini to take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, a serious, independent court that is free of the electoral context and pressures present at FIFA,” Alquier said.
“In the meantime, he stays a serene and determined candidate for the presidency of FIFA.”
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