Platini hearing at CAS starts, ruling expected next week

UEFA president Michel Platini on Friday started his appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against a six-year ban from football, with a verdict reportedly set for next week.

Platini was banned by the ruling body FIFA in connection with a disloyal payment of 2 million dollars he received from then FIFA president Joseph Blatter in 2011 for FIFA work done as a FIFA presidential adviser a decade earlier.

The original ban for Platini, and Blatter, was eight years but reduced by two years for both on appeal at FIFA.

Blatter was expected to attend Friday’s hearing in Lausanne to give evidence. He is also appealing the FIFA ban but a date for a hearing is yet to be set.

The CAS secretary general Matthieu Reeb was quoted as saying that a ruling could come early next week.

A UEFA congress is scheduled for Tuesday, May 3, in Budapest, and if Platini remains suspended a timetable for a presidential election could be looked into in Hungary. The UEFA executive committee meets Monday.

Platini hopes to be cleared to oversee the Euro 2016 tournament in his native France in June and July in his function as UEFA boss.

Source: GNA