The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will today consider whether to temporarily uphold Michel Platini’s appeal against the 90-day ban from football he received from Fifa’s ethics committee.
Platini needs the ban overturned if he is to stand for the Fifa presidency and fulfil his ambition of succeeding Sepp Blatter.
The Frenchman was suspended by Fifa’s ethics committee on October 8 pending the outcome of a full investigation into allegations of misconduct.
Sepp Blatter, Fifa’s president since 1998, was also suspended for his part in the 2 million Swiss franc payment he made to Platini in 2011. Blatter claims the money was owed to Platini under a verbal agreement for work the Frenchman carried out for Fifa between 1998 and 2002. But by the time it was paid, the five-year deadline in Switzerland for honouring outstanding debts had passed.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said it had invited both Platini and FIFA’s legal representatives to a hearing today “limited to the issue as to whether or not the provisional 90-day suspension imposed on M. Platini should be temporarily lifted.”
It said it would make a ruling by Friday.
Fifa are due to elect Blatter’s replacement on February 26 and Platini cannot run unless his suspension is lifted. He went to the CAS after initially having his appeal turned down by Fifa’s appeals committee.
If the Uefa president wins at CAS, the Fifa electoral committee has said it would review his case, but there is still no guarantee he would be able to stand in the election.
Even a temporary reprieve may not be enough, as Platini is scheduled to appear next week before Fifa ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert amid reports that he is facing a life ban.
Both Blatter and Platini deny any wrongdoing. “The ethics committee must prove that I have behaved unethically,” Blatter told Switzerland’s Tages-Anzeiger at the weekend. “And one cannot prove what is not true.”
