Platini faces lifetime ban by FIFA

PARIS, France (Kurdistan24)  – Michel Platini, president of UEFA, faces a lifetime ban from FIFA for his role in a payment he accepted from FIFA president Sepp Blatter in 2011.

Platini has been accused of accepting a 2 million Swiss franc ($1.97 million) payment from FIFA (under Sepp Blatter’s presidency). This incident is one of many in the broader FIFA scandal that has caused uproar in the footballing world.

The Frenchmen’s lawyer, Thibaut d’Ales, revealed that FIFA’s ethics committee has requested to ban Platini for life which all but ends his hopes of running for the FIFA Presidency.

Platini will be given a hearing before the FIFA ethics judge Joachim Eckert in December. Platini’s lawyer questioned FIFA over their accusations. “The overreaching of the request really convinces us of this commission’s total lack of credibility,” D’Ales told the Associated Press, adding, “There is not a single tangible element in this case that can confirm the suspicions.”

Platini has come forward and denied any wrongdoing, and has repeatedly stated that Blatter—who is also due to appear in front of the ethics court—and himself had a verbal contract regarding the payment.

D’Ales remains adamant that the verbal contract is enough to settle the accusations. “Obviously we’ve got the proof that such a deal existed,” he said. “We will submit it to [the Court of Arbitration for Sport], which will handle the case within a fairly short space of time.”

Platini remains optimistic, despite the accusations, of clearing his name and continuing his campaign to replace Sepp Blatter as president of FIFA when the elections take place on February 26, 2016.