Michel Platini’s legal team has dismissed as “outrageous” the decision to reject his appeal against a 90-day ban from football.
On Wednesday, the appeals committee, chaired by Larry Mussenden, rejected the appeals of Platini and Sepp Blatter, amid investigations by Fifa into corruption.
The suspensions were initially imposed by FIFA’s ethics committee on Oct. 8 after it emerged that a £1.35 million payment made by Fifa to Platini was being investigated by Swiss authorities.
Thomas Clay, a member of Platini’s legal team, says he had not expected the ban to be lifted, but is still confident that Platini’s ban lifted in time for next year’s Fifa election.
“It’s a kind of grand slam of violations of all the principles of a fair trial,” Clay told L’Equipe. “I’ve never seen that, even in totalitarian countries. It’s outrageous.
“Michel Platini wasn’t able to explain himself because he was heard by an investigator who doesn’t listen to anyone and judged by an appeals committee made up of people who all live in completely different time zones.
“In fact, there’s a clear willingness to do everything to prevent Michel Platini from standing in the Fifa presidential election on Feb. 26.”
Platini’s lawyers are also unhappy that the appeals committee apparently came to their decision on Nov. 3 but that it took over two weeks to communicate it to their client.
Platini has now taken his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland and Clay is confident that the case will be viewed differently by a more “impartial and independent” body.
“It’s probable that the CAS will reverse Fifa’s judgement,” he said. “What’s happening to Michel Platini is a Kafkaesque trial.
“Someone says to him that he’s suspended, they don’t say why, and then they ask him to prove his innocence.”
The Fifa election committee approved on November 12 five presidential bids: Jordanian Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, Frenchman Jerome Champagne, Swiss Gianni Infantino, Bahraini Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa and South Africa’s Tokyo Sexwale.
