Platini loses appeal; ban shortened
The Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday rejected an appeal by Michel Platini against a six year ban from football saying it was "not convinced" a $2 million payment from FIFA was legitimate.
CAS cut the ban to four years however saying the punishment by FIFA was "too severe." A fine was also reduced. Platini announced that he would resign as UEFA president.
The court "was not convinced by the legitimacy of the 2,000,000 Swiss franc ($2 million, 1.8 million euros) payment, which was only recognised by Mr. Platini and Mr. (Sepp) Blatter, and which occurred more than eight years after the end of his work relations," said a statement from the tribunal based in Lausanne, Switzerland.
"The suspension of Mr. Platini has been lowered from six to four years and the 80,000 Swiss franc fine (reduced) to 60,000," the court said in ruling on an appeal filed by Platini in February.