Suspended UEFA President Michel Platini has officially filed an appeal before the Court of Arbitration for Sports, seeking to overturn his six-year ban from all footballing activities.
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The French football legend, and former Fifa leader Sepp Blatter were banned for six years each over a $2m dollar payment made by Fifa to Platini.
He is continuing to have his campaign to have his name cleared completely, however, which would allow him to continue in his present role as President of UEFA. Platini and Blatter have denied wrongdoing over the secret “gentleman’s agreement” under which the former received the equivalent of £1.3m in 2011 for work undertaken as a Federation Internationale de Football Association adviser between 1999 and 2002.
Reinhard Rauball, the interim president of the German FA (DFB), says Platini should stand down now so his replacement can be discussed and voted on at the next UEFA congress in Budapest on May 3. “A CAS arbitration procedure is in progress”, the CAS statement said.
“First, the parties will exchange written submissions and a panel of three arbitrators will be constituted”.
The panel will consider a verdict after a hearing in Lausanne, Switzerland. “Following the hearing, the Panel will deliberate and on a later date, it will issue a decision in the form of an Arbitral Award”.
Platini maintains he did nothing wrong and has lodged an appeal with CAS.
Platini’s ban was cut from eight to six years by the FIFA Appeal Committee on February 24.
“One has to distinguish between the personal interests of Platini and the capacity to function of Uefa, which is a venture worth billions”. Gianni Infantino, Platini’s right-hand man as general secretary at UEFA, won Friday’s election.
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“Mine is not a prejudgement”.
