Sport’s highest tribunal will announce its decision today whether or not to temporarily lift the 90-day suspension on Michel Platini, barring him from seeking the presidency of football’s scandal-plagued governing body FIFA.
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A FIFA statement read on the CAS decision read, “FIFA has acknowledged the decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the case involving Michel Platini, who was provisionally banned by the adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee, a decision subsequently confirmed by the FIFA Appeal Committee”.
But it is the judging arm that will ultimately make a decision on Platini and Blatter’s future and nobody from that part of FIFA’s Ethics committee has said anything as yet.
The ethics committee could have added an extra 45 days to the ban, but the CAS ruled this unfair to Platini.
CAS said it expects a verdict next week.
Platini and Blatter have accepted there was no written contract for the payment, said to be related to work undertaken by the Frenchman as a special adviser to Blatter between 1998 and 2002, but have denied wrongdoing.
A CAS statement said that on Thursday “the CAS Panel in charge of the arbitration heard the parties’ arguments regarding the temporary lifting of Mr Platini’s provisional 90-day suspension”.
FIFA’s internal investigators submitted a report on the Platini affair to ethics judges last month and have called for a lifetime ban, according to Platini’s lawyers.
Bantel has since told Sky Sports News HQ’s chief news reporter Kaveh Solhekol that he stands by the comments he made to L’Equipe.
The 60-year-old will now no longer be present at the 2016 European Championship draw on Saturday, which will decide the groups for the tournament in France next year.
However, FIFA was not required to pay Platini when more than five years elapsed since the work was completed.
“The CAS panel also emphasised that, even if the ban were lifted at this time, such measure would not give any guarantee to Michel Platini that the Federation Internationale de Football Association ad hoc committee would validate his candidature for the Federation Internationale de Football Association election before 5 January 2016”.
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Federation Internationale de Football Association had plunged into an unprecedented crisis when Swiss prosecutors opened criminal proceedings against Blatter over allegations that he had sold World Cup TV rights to disgraced former Federation Internationale de Football Association vice-president Jack Warner for 20 times below than their actual value. “He may have lost this battle, but he hasn’t lost the war”.
