Platini lodges appeal against Fifa suspension
Soccer’s crisis-hit governing body set for crunch meeting on Oct 20
ZURICH: Uefa chief Michel Platini has appealed against a 90-day ban slapped on him over an ongoing corruption probe, as Fifa gears up for a crunch meeting over its raging sleaze crisis.
The news comes a day after Fifa president Sepp Blatter also launched an appeal against a similar 90-day ban from all football-related activities over a Swiss criminal inquiry.
The bans on Blatter and Platini — the two most powerful men in world football — were announced by Fifa on Thursday as its ethics watchdog geared up its investigation into fraud and corruption at the heart of the organisation.
The 60-year-old Platini, a frontrunner to succeed Blatter as chief of football’s scandal-tainted world governing body, denies any wrongdoing in taking a US$2 million payment from Fifa in 2011.
The former France skipper has slammed the ban as “farcical”, insisting the payment was legitimate, and yesterday a close associate said an official appeal had been lodged at Fifa’s Zurich headquarters.
Much now hangs on a crunch Oct 20 meeting of Fifa’s ruling executive committee — announced late on Friday following pressure from influential regional and national federations.
The fate of the election to replace Blatter — slated for Feb 26 — could depend on the summit, with some senior Fifa figures suggested the committee could debate postponing the vote.
Interim Fifa president Issa Hayatou, who on Friday insisted ongoing health problems would not stop him doing the high-pressure job, is rushing from his native Cameroon to take the reins at Fifa HQ and is expected in Zurich on Tuesday.
The dramatic suspension of Blatter and Platini along with Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke was the latest blow to an organisation reeling from months of scandal.
The crisis has been building since May, when US authorities announced charges against 14 officials and sports marketing executives over bribery allegations amounting to more than US$150 million.
The suspensions handed out on Thursday can be renewed for another 45 days when they run out in January, which would take the exclusion until just before the Fifa election.
Should either Blatter or Platini see their appeal rejected, they would still have the right to take their cases before the final-instance Court of Arbritation for Sport (CAS), based in Lausanne.
Adding to the controversy, Thursday’s purge by the ethics committee also felled South Korean tycoon Chung Mong-Joon — like Platini a candidate to replace Blatter — who was banned from football activities for six years.
Furious Chung has vowed to sue Fifa and take his case to CAS.
There was further drama on Friday as the ethics committee rejected Blatter’s claims he was not allowed to give evidence before he was banned, saying he was given “all his rights”.
There were reports the 79-yearold Blatter, head of Fifa since 1998, had complained that he only found out about his suspension after it was made public.
But ethics committee spokesman Andreas Bantel said Blatter had been given the chance to put his case on Oct 1.
Platini also “had the very same rights” at an interview on the same day, Bantel said.