Platini arrives at CAS to appeal against 6-year ban

Suspended UEFA president Michel Platini arrived for what’s arguably the ‘match of his life:’ an appeal against a six-year ban from football over an allegedly irregular payment.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport in the Swiss city of Lausanne is to rule on the decision by FIFA’s ethics committee, which said the fee of nearly two million euros he received in 2011 for work done a decade earlier lacked transparency and presented conflicts of interest.

Platini appeal against six year ban heard at CAS | Sport | Reuters https://t.co/Lx1z8l5uxc pic.twitter.com/RI9AlgnBiO— Reuters Africa (@ReutersAfrica) April 29, 2016

“If I am rehabilitated in my rights, I’ll be at Euro 2016. If I am not, I’ll listen to the commentators,” Michel Platini said.

The payment to Platini was made by FIFA with the approval of then president Sepp Blatter when he was seeking re-election. Both deny wrongdoing.

Both had eight-year bans reduced to six by FIFA’s Appeal Committee in February.

The Arbitration Court could make its decision as early as next week.

The last time the Euros was held on French soil in 1984 it was Platini who led his country to glory on the pitch.

For the Frenchman, who had been hoping to preside over this year’s tournament, it’s the last chance for what would be a highly symbolic rehabilitation.