FIFA: "The verdict is evidence of a pathetic attempt to eliminate me from football" (Michel Platini)

"This decision does not surprise me. I knew that my fate was already sealed before the hearing on 18/12/2015 (before the FIFA Ethics Committee) and that this verdict is just evidence of a pathetic attempt to eliminate me from football," said Michel Platini, UEFA president, suspended for eight years from any activity in football by the adjudicatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, on 21/12/2015.

Michel Platini had already been provisionally suspended for 90 days by the FIFA Ethics Committee, on 08/10/2015, due to a controversial payment of 2 million Swiss francs (€1.54m at the time of payment), on 01/02/2011, relating to his role as an adviser to Joseph Blatter, president of FIFA, from 1999 to 2002.

Michel Platini, who also fined 80,000 Swiss francs (€74,000), denounced the "charade" and "staging" by the FIFA bodies in order to "dirty his name", of which he denies "any legitimacy and credibility", according to a statement sent to Agence France Presse, on 21/12/2015.

"Parallel to going to the CAS, I am determined to apply to, at the right time, to the civil courts to obtain…