Michel Platini will not be allowed to attend the draw for Euro 2016 this weekend after his appeal against a 90-ban from Fifa was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport [Cas].
The 60-year-old former France international had hoped to attend the draw in Paris as the president of Uefa, but the court upheld the sanction that had been imposed by Fifa’s ethics committee.
Cas did rule though that Fifa cannot extend Platini’s 90-day ban.
That same committee is to hear a disciplinary case against the Frenchman next week over a £1.3million payment he received in 2011 from FIFA, signed off by the world governing body’s president Sepp Blatter. Platini insists the 2million Swiss franc payment was owed from an oral agreement he made with Blatter when he started working as FIFA’s technical advisor in 1998.
Next week’s FIFA ethics committee hearing could impose lifetime bans on both Platini and Blatter if corruption is proved, and shorter bans for lesser offences.
The timing of the 2011 payment has raised suspicions in that it was made only a few months before Blatter was standing again for the FIFA presidency. Both Blatter and Platini deny any wrongdoing.
Blatter announced in June that he would stand down as FIFA president when fresh elections are held, on February 26 next year, in the wake of corruption inquiries being instigated by both the US Department of Justice and the Swiss authorities into the organisation’s activities.
Issa Hayatou is now the acting president of football’s world governing body because of the provisional suspension imposed on Blatter.
Platini had initially been favourite to succeed Blatter as president prior to his suspension, which has prevented him from taking part in any campaigning for the most powerful job in football.
