By Gilbert Alasa.
Embattled former FIFA chief Michel Platini has lodged an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to contest the six-year ban from football imposed on him by the football governing body, te arbitration body has announced.
The former UEFA president Platini and ex-FIFA boss Sepp Blatter were banned from all football activity over a conflict of interest in a two million Swiss franc (£1.35m) payment deal made to Platini that is also the subject of a criminal investigation in Switzerland.
The two men appealed the decision to the Appeals Committee of world football’s governing body, which reduced the bans by two years last week.
However, in a statement CAS confirmed that Platini, 60, has officially launched an appeal against the decision.
The statement read: “In appealing to the CAS, Michel Platini seeks to annul the decisions taken by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee and by the FIFA Appeal Committee which lead to him being declared ineligible to take part in football-related activity at national and international level for six years. A CAS arbitration procedure is in progress.
“First, the parties will exchange written submissions and a panel of three arbitrators will be constituted. The Panel will then issue directions with respect to the holding of a hearing. 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 had been viewed as the obvious successor to Blatter as FIFA president before his suspension.
Gianni Infantino, UEFA’s general secretary at the time, became a candidate in his stead, and won last week’s vote in Zurich to become FIFA’s first new leader in 18 years.
