This file photo taken on December 8, 2015 shows journalists surrounding UEFA president and FIFA vice president Michel Platini as he arrives at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to appeal against a 90-day suspension in Lausanne.

DPA/Zurich


Michel Platini was absent yesterday as the ethics committee of the ruling football body FIFA conducted a hearing into a 2-million dollar payment the suspended UEFA president received in 2011 for FIFA work done a decade earlier.
Instead, his lawyer Thibaud d’Ales brought 120 pages of documents to the FIFA headquarters in an attempt to convince the adjudicatory chamber panel that his client is innocent in the affair.
Platini’s case was dealt with a day after FIFA president Joseph Blatter appeared before the chamber over the “disloyal payment” from 2011 which is investigated by Swiss prosecutors and led to the suspension of Blatter and Platini by FIFA in October.
The chamber’s spokesman Marc Tenbuecken said the judges headed by German Jans-Joachim Eckert would deliberate over the weekend “and publish its verdict on Monday,” likely between 0900 and 1000 GMT.
The ruling will determine whether Platini can run for the FIFA presidency at an election scheduled for February 26. If he is banned Europe’s UEFA would also need a new leader.
Platini said through his legal team Wednesday he would not attend because he felt pre-judged by recent statements of investigatory chamber spokesman Andreas Bantel. He also named his case political with the intention of stopping him from becoming FIFA boss.
Both men protest their innocence and while admitting that there was no written contract they say they had a verbal agreement.
The pair face life bans if found guilty of corruption; or bans over several years in the case of conflict of interest. The investigatory chamber has demanded sanctions in its reports on the top officials.
If sanctioned, the case is to continue at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), as Blatter and Platini have said they would appeal.
If cleared, Blatter’s last day as FIFA president will be February 26 when he will hand back his mandate and the congress is to elect a new president - and approve a wide range reform package in order to restore FIFA’s credibility amid arrests of several top officials in a United States criminal investigation, and a separate Swiss probe.
The acting FIFA leadership of president Issa Hayatou and general secretary Markus Kattner, in an open letter published Friday, called on all 209 FIFA members “to fully support, implement and abide by the new reforms.
“The future of FIFA and the global development of football depend on our full commitment to embracing a change in culture from top to bottom,” it said.
FIFA’s executive committee has passed the package which includes term limits for the president and other top officials, more transparency, and a new structure with less power for the president and a no longer decision-making council replacing the executive committee.
“We maintain that the majority of those working in football governance do so in the right way and for the right reasons, but it has become clear that root-and-branch reform is the only way to deter future wrongdoing and to restore faith in FIFA,” the letter said.
“We will need to work hard together over the coming years to win back the trust and respect of fans, players, commercial affiliates and all the many millions of participants who make football the world’s most popular sport.”