By Andrew Warshaw
February 1 – Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini will have their appeals against their respective eight-year bans heard by FIFA’s appeal judges in the middle of February.
Blatter is anxious to preside at the February 26 presidential election that will name his successor in Zurich but is running out of time and will have to decide whether to go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if the appeals panel upholds his ban on February 16 over the infamous SFr2 million “disloyal payment” made in 2011 to Platini.
According to AFP, Platini’s hearing will be held 24 hours earlier, on February 15. The head of UEFA, currently unable to fulfil his duties, has already pulled out of the FIFA presidential race in order to concentrate on trying to clear his name having at one stage been odds-on favourite to succeed Blatter.
Platini is keen to be back in control of UEFA by the time the European Championships in his native France get under way in June. Without him, UEFA looks set to have no leader during the Euros unless an election is held beforehand.
To complicate matters further, FIFA’s ethics committee has also said it will appeal against the eight-year sentence saying it is too lenient. Ethics investigators strongly believe corruption may have occurred and are pressing for a far greater punishment. They originally sought a life ban which was not accepted by chief ethics judge Hans Joachim Eckert and his team.
Depending on next month’s verdict Platini has already said he is prepared to take his case to CAS in order to restore his credibility and resume his career.
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