By Andrew Warshaw
December 16 – UEFA president Michel Platini has confirmed he is boycotting Friday’s FIFA ethics committee hearing which will determine whether he is banned from football and has to relinquish his bid for the FIFA presidency.
Platini’s lawyers say there is no point in the Frenchman appearing in person since, they claim, his fate has already been decided.
FIFA investigators have called for sanctions against both Platini and Sepp Blatter over their alleged secret deal concerning the SFr2 million paid by FIFA and authorised by Blatter at around the time he was re-elected in 2011 even though it was for work Platini carried out several years earlier.
In a statement Platini’s lawyers said he would not be appearing on Friday “as the verdict of this ethics committee has been announced in the press last weekend by one of its spokespersons in disregard of all fundamental rights, starting with the presumption of innocence.
“By this decision Michel Platini means to express his deepest indignation with a process he regards as solely political and intended to prevent him from standing for the FIFA presidency.”
Platini has now given up the chance to try and keep any ban as short as possible by opting not to appear in front of ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert. He still hopes to clear his name in time to stand in the election on February 26 but it remains to be seen whether he going about it in the smartest way.
Like Blatter, whose hearing is tomorrow, he is currently suspended for 90 days and is presumably weighing up the idea of appealing whatever ruling comes his way on the basis that he did not receive a fair trial.
But FIFA’s ethics committee was quick to counter this.
“We would like to clearly stress that the adjudicatory chamber of the ethics committee will deal with the present case in the same way as with any other procedure independently and in an unbiased manner,” a statement said.
While corruption against both Blatter and Platini could be hard to prove, it is understood that at the very least there is clear evidence of a conflict of interest which could carry a sentence of up to seven years.
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