Platini was tipped as a future leader of football’s world governing body and is a three-time European Footballer of the Year.
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FIFA’s Ethics Committee Suspended FIFA President Sepp Blatter and European soccer boss, one of the finest players of his generation Michel Platini for eight years on Monday.
The Frenchman said in a statement that he was “at peace with my conscience”.
“It has been rigged to tarnish my name by bodies I know well and who for me are bereft of all credibility or legitimacy”.
The French footballing legend said: “I am determined to apply to… civil courts to obtain damages for all the prejudice I have suffered over very long weeks”.
Michel Platini, vice president, also received an eight-year suspension.
Blatter held a lengthy press conference, where he lashed out at the process that had been followed, announcing his appeal plans. Swiss prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into these allegedly illegal payments.
Sepp Blatter arrives for a press conference.
The committee’s adjudicatory chamber found that there was no legal basis for the payment of two million Swiss francs to Platini and that Blatter’s assertion of an oral agreement was unconvincing. The payment was approbed by Blatter.
“Let us say that I’m really sorry, I’m sorry that I am still somewhere a punching ball, I’m sorry that I am as president of Federation Internationale de Football Association this punching ball”.
“Something is wrong in this system”. “I will fight until the end”.
Both men denied any wrongdoing.
Since October, these two iconic figures of football were suspended due to an investigation concerning a payment of 2 million Swiss francs made to Platini.
“I am a man of principles”. “These principles are never taking money you have never earned and pay your debts”. Platini’s UEFA urged its members weeks before the June 2011 election to back Blatter, who was elected unopposed when Bin Hammam was implicated in bribery.
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Last Thursday Blatter presented an eight-hour defense to the ethics committee, while on Friday, Platini simply had his lawyer deliver a message: “I am already judged, I am already condemned”. “I am now suspended eight years”.
