Federation Internationale de Football Association wants life ban for Platini

Michel Platini’s lawyer has reportedly claimed FIFA’s Ethics Committee is seeking to ban the UEFA president for life.

Platini is serving a 90-day suspension on corruption charges over a £1.35m payment he received from Federation Internationale de Football Association president Sepp Blatter who is also suspended.

The representatives of Blatter, who was last week taken to hospital for stress and then revealed he was close to death, have refused to comment on whether or not Federation Internationale de Football Association are looking to impose the same ban on him.

Those suspensions followed the announcement from Switzerland’s attorney general that a criminal case had been opened against Blatter over financial misconduct during his tenure as FIFA’s president.

Earlier this month, he was omitted from the official five-man shortlist of candidates to run football’s scandal-hit ruling body with the election scheduled for February 26.

D’Ales said FIFA’s aim is to prove that there was no contract between Platini and Blatter.

The French-language broadcaster said in a news report late Sunday that the 79-year-old Blatter was treated in intensive care for several days.

“It’s a pure scandal, and by making it public there’s clearly an intention to cause harm”.

“But it was the angels which sang”, Blatter said, adding “happily I never lost consciousness” during the 48 hours when most ill.

“If Mr Platini wants to comment on the request he is entitled to do that”.

“I can confirm that Michel Platini and his lawyers have got the report and they have also received the request of the investigative committee”, spokesman Andreas Bantel told AFP, without reference to the sanction demanded.

“In the course of the proceedings, both parties will be invited to submit positions including any evidence with regard to the final reports of the investigatory chamber and they may request a hearing”.

The pair were given 90-day suspensions by the Ethics Committee in October in relation to an alleged disloyal payment made by Federation Internationale de Football Association to Platini in 2011.

Blatter repeated his legal defense that a verbal agreement for Platini to receive the money was a valid contract in Swiss law.