CAS confirms Platini appeal

Michel Platini has launched an appeal against his six-year ban from FIFA with the court of arbitration for sport (CAS).

The Frenchman was handed the punishment for a “disloyal payment” made by then FIFA president Sepp Blatter in 2011 .

Platini saw his sanction reduced from eight years to six by the FIFA Appeal Committee last week, though his efforts to have it quashed completely were dismissed.

After that verdict – which he branded “insulting” and “shameful” – the 60-year-old insisted he would continue his fight and take the case to CAS, with that appeal confirmed by the court on Wednesday.

Its statement read: “Michel Platini has filed an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the decision issued by the FIFA Appeal Committee on 24 February 2016.

“In appealing to the CAS, Michel Platini seeks to annul the decisions taken by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee and by the FIFA Appeal Committee which lead to him being declared ineligible to take part in football-related activity at national and international level for six years.

“A CAS arbitration procedure is in progress. First, the parties will exchange written submissions and a panel of three arbitrators will be constituted. The Panel will then issue directions with respect to the holding of a hearing. 

“Following the hearing, the Panel will deliberate and on a later date, it will issue a decision in the form of an Arbitral Award.”

Blatter is widely expected to follow Platini’s lead and take his own appeal to CAS.