FIFA ethics committee seeks lifetime ban for UEFA president Michel Platini
FIFA’s ethics committee is seeking a lifetime ban for Michel Platini, his lawyers have confirmed.
UEFA president Platini and outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter will have formal hearings into allegations of FIFA’s ethics code breaches later this month over a £1.3m (€1.84m) payment made to the Frenchman in 2011.
A spokesman for Platini’s lawyer Thibaut D’Ales confirmed the recommendation from the ethics committee’s investigatory chamber was for a lifetime ban if the charges are proved.
It is expected that a similar sanction will be sought against Blatter, but there has been no confirmation from his legal team, while FIFA’s ethics committee refused to comment.
French sports daily L'Equipe reported D'Ales as saying the recommended lifetime ban was a pure “scandal” and “disproportionate” and claimed that it had been deliberately leaked to further damage Platini's hopes of running for the FIFA presidency.
D’Ales added: “This ban is subject to corruption being proved but it is clearly a disproportionate punishment.
“In releasing this, there is clearly a desire to harm. The masks are slipping one by one in FIFA, the electoral calendar is being manipulated and there is a strategy to eliminate Platini as a candidate.”
Hans-Joachim Eckert, the German judge who heads the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA’s ethics committee, opened proceedings against the pair on Monday after studying reports from investigators and a decision is expected before Christmas.
Blatter and Platini – who are both provisionally suspended for 90 days – are facing Charges of four ethics code breaches: mismanagement, conflict of interest, false accounting and non co-operation with or criticising the ethics committee.
Other senior FIFA figures previously to receive lifetime bans include Jack Warner (Trinidad and Tobago), Chuck Blazer (USA), Mohamed Bin Hammam (Qatar) and Manilal Fernando (Sri Lanka).
