FIFA Vice-president Michel Platini is appealing after the soccer’s world governing body banned him for 90 days while corruption claims are investigated.
Michel Platini, 60, has been suspended along with FIFA President Sepp Blatter and Secretary General Jerome Valcke. They all deny wrongdoing.
The former soccer star is the French Football Association’s preference to succeed Sepp Blatter at FIFA presidency.
The French FA wants the Court of Arbitration for Sport to intervene to ensure Michel Platini can stand for election.
FIFA’s ethics committee began its investigation after the Swiss attorney general opened criminal proceedings against Sepp Blatter in September.
Sepp Blatter is accused of signing a contract “unfavorable” to FIFA and making a “disloyal payment” to Michel Platini.
Photo Getty Images
The ethics committee also opened an inquiry into Michel Platini over the 2 million euros payment, which was made nine years after the Frenchman carried out consultation work for Sepp Blatter.
FIFA will hold an emergency meeting on October 20 in Zurich to discuss February’s presidential election, at which a successor to Sepp Blatter will be chosen.
Michel Platini, UEFA’s president since 2007, has been backed by South America’s soccer confederation (CONMEBOL) following his suspension.
CONMEBOL said Michel Platini should be regarded as innocent until proven guilty.
The French Football Federation (FFF) is expecting a decision from FIFA’s appeal committee within eight days.
“The FFF has adopted the principle of an appeal if the decision of the FIFA appeal committee does not go Michel Platini’s way,” said a FFF spokesman.
Swiss Sepp Blatter, 79, won a fifth consecutive presidential election in May but announced he would be stepping down just days later following the launch of two investigations into FIFA by US and Swiss authorities.
Michel Platini is one of the favorites to replace Sepp Blatter and still plans to stand. He has the full backing of UEFA, which is holding an emergency meeting next week.
FIFA’s suspended president Sepp Blatter is appealing against his 90-day ban from soccer’s world governing body.
Sepp Blatter, 79, has been suspended from all duties while FIFA’s ethics committee investigates corruption claims against its leader.
The Swiss was suspended on October 8 along with secretary general Jerome Valcke and Vice-president Michel Platini.
Michel Platini will contest the ban “in the appropriate manner at the appropriate time”. All three deny any wrongdoing.
David Gill, a FIFA vice-president and the vice-chairman of the FA, has written to Markus Kattner, FIFA’s acting secretary general, to request an emergency meeting of the governing body’s executive committee.
FIFA’s ethics committee began its investigation into Sepp Blatter after the Swiss attorney general opened criminal proceedings against him in September.
Photo Getty Images
Sepp Blatter is accused of signing a contract “unfavorable” to FIFA and making a “disloyal payment” to Michel Platini.
The ethics committee also opened an inquiry into Michel Platini over the 2 million euros payment, which was made nine years after the 60-year-old Frenchman carried out consultation work for Sepp Blatter.
Jerome Valcke was already on gardening leave from his FIFA position following newspaper allegations last month which implicated the 55-year-old in a scheme to profit from the sale of World Cup tickets.
His lawyer said that his client was “confident” he will be fully cleared of the “false allegations” when “all the facts come out”.
Sepp Blatter won a fifth consecutive presidential election in May, but he announced he would be stepping down just days later following the launch of two investigations into FIFA by US and Swiss authorities.
He is due to finish his term on February 26, when a new president will be elected.
Michel Platini, who also heads European soccer body UEFA, is one of the favorites to replace Sepp Blatter and still plans to stand.
Soccer’s governing body FIFA has decided to provisionally suspend its president, Sepp Blatter, for ninety days.
Members of FIFA’s ethics committee met this week after the Swiss attorney general opened criminal proceedings against Sepp Blatter, 79, in September. They have recommended a 90-day provisional suspension.
Swiss Sepp Blatter is accused of signing a contract “unfavorable” to soccer’s governing body and making a “disloyal payment” to UEFA president Michel Platini, 60.
Sepp Blatter, who has run FIFA since 1998, and Michel Platini, who wants to succeed him, deny any wrongdoing.
A final decision will be made on October 9 by Hans Joachim Eckhert, the head of FIFA’s ethics adjudicatory chamber, according to a close friend of Sepp Blatter.
No decision has been made on whether to suspend Michel Platini.
On October 7, Sepp Blatter told a German magazine that he was being “condemned without there being any evidence for wrongdoing”.
The ethics committee’s adjudicatory chamber had been meeting in Zurich since October 5.
The investigation is centered on allegations believed to be around a 2005 TV rights deal between FIFA and Jack Warner, the former president of CONCACAF, the governing body of football in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
It is also examining a payment of 2 million Swiss francs that Michel Platini received in 2011 for working for Sepp Blatter. He claims it was “valid compensation” for work carried out more than nine years previously.
Michel Platini has provided information to the criminal investigation but said he has done so as a witness.
Swiss prosecutors said Michel Platini is being treated as “in between a witness and an accused person” as they investigate corruption at FIFA.
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