“I will accept the verdict”, Blatter, 80, told journalists outside the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland. “We learn to win but also we learn to lose”, he said.
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Platini was on the receiving end of the suspect 2 million Swiss franc (US$2 million, 1.8 million euros) payment that Blatter authorised in 2011.
Blatter was succeeded by former UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino as Federation Internationale de Football Association president in February, following a tenure spanning more than 17 years.
Platini’s appeal to CAS was already judged in May, when Blatter appeared in person as a witness.
“I came here to repeat and say again the truth”, said Platini.
Blatter entered the courthouse shortly past 8.00am (0600 GMT) for the hearing which is expected to last one day.
Blatter arrived at the treelined courthouse in a black Mercedes Sedan and flanked by his Zurich-based lawyer Lorenz Erni. He was banned from all football-related activity last December along with the then UEFA boss, Michel Platini.
In the same interview, Blatter also claimed he could “understand that the Americans are not always happy with what’s happened somewhere in the world because they try to be the police of the world everywhere”, but he “couldn’t understand that the Swiss authorities had agreed”. “This is a principle: if you have debts you pay them”.
Both Platini and Blatter, however, refused all allegations levelled against them and had their bans reduced to six years by FIFA’s Appeal Committee in February.
He had appealed the suspension to the FIFA Appeals Committee, which had the power to either extend or reduce his suspension.
FILE -In this April 29, 2016 file picture Michel Platini talks to media after leaving the worldwide Court of Arbitration for Sport, CAS, in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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That outcome would likely offer little comfort to the ageing Blatter, whose four-decade career as a football broker is likely over.
