Platini unable to take appeal straight to CAS

FIFA have told the suspended Michel Platini that he cannot go straight to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to appeal his eight-year ban from the game, the Frenchman’s lawyers revealed today.

The banned UEFA president must wait to receive a notice of what motivated the ethics committee of world football’s governing body to give him his suspension before then going to FIFA’s own appeals committee.

Only if they reject his appeal can he then go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The timetable of such a process means his chances of standing for the FIFA presidency at elections on February 26, even if the ban were overturned, are slim in the extreme. “Prevented by FIFA from going straight to the CAS, prevented from lodging an appeal against the ban (immediately, internally with FIFA) because we do not yet know the reasons, Michel Platini and his advisors condemn an act of sabotage aimed at stopping him from being elected president of FIFA,” read a statement from the Frenchman’s lawyers.

Platini needed the agreement of FIFA to take his case straight to the CAS.