UEFA President Michel Platini loses suspension appeal

Platini has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the suspension and if successful it means the UEFA president will be able to attend the Euro 2016 draw in Paris.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has made a decision to uphold the ban but agreed it can not be extended.

A CAS statement suggested that their decision had been taken with Platini’s presidential bid in mind.

But the three CAS judges unanimously decided that no irreparable damage had been caused.

The court ruled out an extension of the temporary ban, saying it would breach Platini’s rights.

“Platini has perhaps lost a battle today but he has not lost the war and as long as he has not lost the war, we can still harbour some hopes”.

But FIFA was ordered not to extend Platini’s ban by 45 days, which was always a possibility under ethics regulations.

Platini’s camp voiced optimism after the ruling.

The CAS panel said maintaining the ban which was placed two months ago in light of allegations of corruption including a suspicious payment between Platini and his Federation Internationale de Football Association counterpart Sepp Blatter did not cause irreparable harm to Platini.

The pair said they believed their verbal contract was legal under Swiss law, but that law places a five-year time limit on such payments, and the fact they did not appear in FIFA’s accounts is understood to form part of the case against them.

“The OAG served a formal request on UEFA and documents have already been handed over and seized”, it added.

The OAG was apparently trying to assess the existence of this purported oral contract, while seeking broader details of Platini’s relationship with Federation Internationale de Football Association in the late 1990s.

Platini had asked for the suspension to be lifted so he could continue his work.

UEFA President Michel Platini looks on before the preliminary draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup at Konstantin Palace in St Petersburg, Russia July 25, 2015.

Platini’s lawyers said last weekend they had a memo from a UEFA meeting in November 1998 when he had no links to the European body.

Uefa began preparing for life after Michel Platini on Friday night by announcing a congress at which a new president could be elected and finally ending its opposition to goal-line technology. His 17-year rule as Fifa’s president has descended into a quagmire of accusations and counter claims with 39 people charged with corruption by the U.S. justice department.

Platini was questioned by Swiss authorities at Federation Internationale de Football Association headquarters on September 25, and Lauber has said he is “between a witness and an accused person”.