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(Sports Focus) CAS reduces Platini's suspension to 4 years

Xinhua, May 9, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rendered its verdict on Michel Platini's case on Monday, upholding his suspension but reducing it from six to four years.

Also the fine to the suspended UEFA president has been lowered from 80,000 Swiss franc (about 82,593 U.S. dollars) to 60,000 (about 61,945 U.S. dollars).

The 60-year-old Frenchman was banned for "conflict of interest" over a two million Swiss franc payment authorized by former FIFA president Sep Blatter, who is still under criminal investigation in Switzerland.

Platini was previously handed an eight-year suspension by the FIFA Ethics Committee last December, banning him from any football-related activity at a national and international level, and later obtained a reduced sentence to six years in February by FIFA's Appeal Committee.

He filed an appeal at the CAS on February 26 to request the annulment of the decisions issued by the sport's world governing body, and was heard on April 29 at the CAS headquarters in Lausanne.

The arbitral panel, composed of Italian Luigi Fumagalli, Frenchman Jan Paulsson and Bernard Hanotiau of Belgium, then decided on Monday to reduce the ban to four years, considering that "the suspension imposed by FIFA on Mr. Platini was nevertheless too severe".

Acccording to a statement released by the CAS, the panel "unanimously determined" that Platini obtained an undue advantage and was guilty of a conflict of interest in breach of the FIFA Code of Ethics.

"The CAS Panel was of the opinion that a severe sanction could be justified in view of the superior functions carried out by Mr. Platini, the absence of any repentance and the impact that this matter has had on FIFA's reputation," read the CAS press release.

Contrary to the decisions challenged, the panel considered that Platini could not be sanctioned for the violation of "general rules of conduct" and "loyalty" of the FIFA Code of Ethics, said the statement.

"In addition, the Panel noted that FIFA knew of the CHF 2,000,000 payment in 2011 but initiated an investigation into Mr. Platini's behaviour with the FIFA Ethics Committee in September 2015 only," it added.

The CAS decision means that Platini is not able to attend Euro 2016's opening match between France and Romania on June 10 and UEFA, which has never named an interim president during Platini's suspension, will have to find a new president.

Platini, who won the European Cup with Juventus and the European Championship with France as the national team's number 10, took the helm of the soccer's governing body of the continent in 2007. Endit