Platini calls FIFA’s 8-year ban a ‘kick in the teeth’ – Blatter to use all legal steps to clear name

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PARIS, Dec 22, (AFP): Michel Platini called FIFA’s eight-year ban a “kick in the teeth” but vowed in an interview with AFP on Tuesday to fight on for the presidency of world football’s governing body.

The FIFA vice president and UEFA leader condemned the ethics committee that banned him on Monday but said he would “fight to clear my name.”

Platini’s ban from all football activities prevents him from standing in the February 26 election to find a replacement for FIFA president Sepp Blatter and working as UEFA president.

Blatter and Platini were suspended for eight years over a 2 million Swiss franc ($2 million/1.8 million euro) payment made to Platini in 2011 for work carried out between 1999 and 2002.

Platini is determined to plough on in his quest to become the most powerful man in football.

“I will fight. But then I’ll take my responsibilities according to what happens,” he told AFP in the exclusive interview.

However, Platini acknowledges that he may run out of time if the issue is not resolved quickly in his favour.

“What is troubling is that I have no certainty about the timetable ahead. As long as I have not had the reasons for the suspension I cannot appeal before the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport).”

Platini insisted there was nothing illegal in the oral contract he said was agreed with Blatter. The salary agreement was however never disclosed in FIFA documentation until the payment was made in 2011.

“I’m struggling to understand. Why? How did we get to this? I did some work, I asked to be paid, I sent an invoice, I was paid, I paid my taxes on that. That was in 2011,” he said.

“There was a debt that was settled, full stop! Then, in 2015, the Swiss court wanted more information. “Then it took off at FIFA and a lot of people at FIFA are happy that this issue happened.

“And here I am, suspended from all football-related activity for eight years.”

Platini repeated his suspicions that the timing of the ban was a deliberate attempt to prevent him from standing in February’s election.

“What was the FIFA ethics committee doing between 2011 when I was paid and 2015? Was it sleeping? Suddenly it wakes up,” he scoffed.

“Ah yes, it wakes up in a FIFA election year when I’m a candidate. It’s amazing!”

Platini insists he should not be bunged into the same bracket as Blatter, who has long been suspected of corrupt practices.

FIFA also told Platini on Tuesday that he cannot bypass its appeals process by challenging his eight-year ban directly at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

FIFA said it wrote to Platini’s lawyers on Tuesday to confirm that the UEFA leader can only go to CAS if the governing body’s appeals committee first rejects his request. FIFA rules state a list of candidates must be finalized one month before the election in Zurich.

Meanwhile, Sepp Blatter is ready to take “all legal steps” to clear his name after he was banned from football for eight years by a FIFA court over ethics violations, his lawyers said on Tuesday.

“President Blatter is eager to present his arguments to the appeal committee,” his Zurich-based lawyer Lorenz Erni and Virginia-based counsel Richard Cullen said in a joint statement.

After FIFA announced his suspension on Monday, Blatter held a defiant press conference in which he said he would first challenge the suspension at a FIFA appeals committee before going to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), if necessary.

“President Blatter is prepared to take all legal steps to prevail on the remaining charges and clear his name,” his lawyers said.

FIFA has told its banned leader Sepp Blatter he will have to leave his presidential apartment by Feb 26 when a successor is elected, a source close to the world body said on Tuesday.

The apartment in an old Zurich house that has been divided is one of the perks Blatter, 79, will lose after his eight year suspension pronounced on Monday by FIFA’s ethics court.

He automatically loses his FIFA mobile phone and his professional email address, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But the disgraced FIFA leader, found guilty of a conflict of interest over a two million Swiss franc ($2 million/1.8 million euro) payment to FIFA vice president Michel Platini does not lose all privileges, the source said.

“He is still protected by his labour contract” under Swiss law, said the source.

So Blatter will get his salary — for which he has refused to reveal the amount — his FIFA car and apartment until the contract ends on February 26.

A FIFA congress is to be held on that day to elect a new president and agree reforms to the scandal-tainted body.

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