Paris: UEFA chief Michel Platini has appealed against a 90-day suspension imposed on him by world governing body FIFA as part of an ongoing corruption investigation, a close associate said on Saturday.
Lawyers for Platini, who is also a vice-president of FIFA, lodged the appeal at the organisation’s Zurich headquarters, the associate said.
The Frenchman has already denied any wrongdoing in accepting a $2million payment from FIFA in 2011 for consulting work he undertook years earlier and called the ban “farcical.”
Platini’s action comes a day after FIFA chief Sepp Blatter also launched an appeal against a similar 90-day ban from all football-related activities imposed on him. Blatter, the FIFA president since 1998, also denies that he has done anything wrong. Should either man’s appeal be rejected, they would still have the right to take their cases before the final-instance Court of Arbitration for Sport, based in Lausanne. —AFP
