Switzerland supreme court has brushed aside the appeal by former FIFA Vice President, Michel Platini against his four-year ban for financial impropriety. The Switzerland Federal Tribunal said that the ban imposed on the former French soccer star by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) “does not appear to be manifestly excessive.”
With this judgment by the Swiss Federal Court, this is the fourth judicial body to pronounce that Platini was not entitled to receive US$2 million in backdated salary that he was paid in 2011 for working from 1998 – 2002 as an adviser to the then FIFA President, Joseph Sepp Blatter.
When defending themselves, Platini and Blatter claimed they had a verbal gentlemanly agreement but were banned by FIFA for a conflict of interest. The damning evidence also included Blatter’s attempt to increase Platini’s FIFA pension fund with over US$1 million he was not entitled to.
The former UEFA President lost his coveted job as Europe’s Soccer Chief and this case also cost him the FIFA Presidency in 2016. Also, former FIFA President, Sepp Blatter remains the subject of criminal proceedings by Swiss federal prosecutors for suspected mishandling of FIFA funds including the unauthorised payments to Michel Francois Platini.
