Platini says Swiss have cleared him of criminal wrongdoing
Michel Platini outside the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2016
Keystone
Former head of European football Michel Platini says he has been cleared by Swiss authorities of any criminal wrongdoing over payments he received from FIFA, world football’s Zurich-based governing body, that resulted in a ban for ethics violations. He said he now plans to return to the game.
“After [three] years of investigation, the Office of the Attorney General of SwitzerlandExternal link has just restored the truth by officially confirming that no charge has been at any time or will be in the future held against me in connection with my activities for FIFA,” Platini, 62, said in a statement.
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FIFA ethics court bans Blatter and Platini for eight years
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Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini look set to appeal a FIFA ethics court decision to ban them from football for eight years.
However, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland on Saturday contradicted Platini. “No process has been stopped. That would be a false interpretation,” spokesman André Marty told the German Press Agency.
The office also told the AFP news agency that the process targeting former FIFA boss Sepp Blatter, in which Platini was questioned as a witness, “is not definitively finished”.
Ethical violation
Platini said he now hoped FIFA would have “the courage and decency” to lift his ban.
However, on Saturday FIFA was standing firm, pointing out that Platini had been suspended for violating FIFA’s ethical code, not for breaking Swiss law.
“It has always been very clear for FIFA, as for the CAS [Court of Arbitration for Sport], that Mr Platini has never been the target of a criminal investigation in Switzerland,” FIFA said in a statement to the AFP news agency.
In 2015, Platini, a former captain of France, was banned from all football-related activities over a CHF2 million ($2.02 million) payment, for work done a decade earlier, made to him by FIFA in 2011 with former FIFA boss Sepp Blatter’s approval.
FIFA’s ethics committee said the payment, made at a time when Blatter was seeking re-election, lacked transparency and presented conflicts of interest. Both men denied wrongdoing.
Platini was initially banned from all football-related activities for eight years. The Lausanne-based CAS reduced the suspension to four years.
“I will come back. Where, when, how? It’s too early to tell. But I will come back to football,” Platini said.
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Platini to resign after latest CAS verdict
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In a much-awaited but damning verdictExternal link, CAS lowered his sanction from six to four years on Monday but said Platini was guilty of a conflict of interest for taking a CHF2 million ($2 million) payment from world football’s governing body FIFA, approved by former FIFA President Sepp Blatter in 2011. This occurred eight years…
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On Wednesday, the appeals body announced that it had “partially upheld the decision made by the ethics committee” and had decided to reduce Blatter and Platini’s bans from eight to six years. It said the ethics committee had not taken certain mitigating circumstances into account before its verdict of an eight-year ban and therefore recommended…
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Michel Platini, head of European football’s governing body UEFA, has officially pulled out of the race to become the next President of FIFA.
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