FIFA ethics committee hearing of Platini December 16-18

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The FIFA ethics committee will question Michel Platini “most likely between December 16 and 18”, a source close to football’s world governing body said Friday.

Platini’s lawyer said at the end of November that the ethics body’s investigatory chamber wants the UEFA chief banned for life over a suspect $2.0-million payment he received from FIFA’s now suspended leader Sepp Blatter in 2011.

Platini and Blatter “have asked to be heard, and this will be granted,” a source close to FIFA told AFP.

“Michel Platini will be heard most likely between December 16 and 18”.

The 60-year-old Frenchman, until recently the favourite to take over football’s world governing body, is set to appear before the FIFA ethics committee’s adjudicatory chamber.

No further information has been released from Blatter’s legal team concerning his own hearings.

Like Platini, Blatter was handed a provisional 90-day suspension on October 8 while an investigation is held into the suspect payment.

That has ruled the one-time France international player out of the race for the FIFA presidency to be decided in the election on February 26.

The investigation, alongside a US bribery inquiry and a Swiss probe into the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, has plunged FIFA into its worst-ever crisis.

Blatter is also under investigation by Swiss authorities for ‘criminal mismanagement’ over the payment to Platini, ostensibly for consultancy work completed nine years earlier.

Swiss authorities are treating Platini as a witness in the case, rather than a suspect.

Both men have denied any wrongdoing but admit there was no contract for the work or payment.

Platini has appealed against his suspension at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), with a source close to the case saying that decision will be taken “in the coming days”.

Blatter’s lawyers have not indicated whether or not the suspended FIFA chief has appealed against his own suspension before the CAS.

He has 21 days to make an appeal, with the deadline falling around December 9.

Source: TheGuardian