Platini loses retroactive appeal against FIFA ban

Platini was handed a six-year ban from football Keystone / Julien De Rosa

Michel Platini has lost his appeal at the European Court of Human Rights to overturn a four-year ban from football handed down by the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

In a unanimous ruling published on Thursday, the Strasbourg judges said aspects of Platini’s appeal case were “manifestly ill-founded”.

“Regarding the seriousness of the misconduct, the senior position of Platini within football’s governing bodies, and the need to restore the reputation of both football and FIFA, the punishment handed down seems neither excessive nor arbitrary,” the court wrote.

Platini, a Frenchman, was handed a six-year ban from football for having accepted a $2 million payment (CHF1.9 million) in 2011 from FIFA, world football’s Zurich-based governing body. The payment was authorised by the organisation’s then-president Sepp Blatter for uncontracted work done a decade earlier.

The sentence was reduced to four years by the CAS in 2016, though Platini’s effort to overturn the ban failed. His appeal was also thrown out by FIFA’s ethics and appeals committee and the Swiss supreme court.

After the CAS ruling Platini stepped down from his role as UEFA president; he also saw his chances of succeeding Blatter as head of FIFA scuppered.

Both Platini and Blatter are being pursued by FIFA to recover the $2 million in a civil court claim in Switzerland.

Platini’s ban from football expired in October last year. If he wants to participate in some role again, he must pay FIFA a CHF60,000 fine, something he previously said he would not do while the case in Strasbourg was pending.