The Swiss Federal Court yesterday turned down former UEFA President Michel Platini’s appeal against a four-year ban from football. Platini and former FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter were originally banned for eight years by the FIFA Ethics Committee, however the FIFA Appeals Committee later reduced that ban to six years, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) later reduced Platini’s ban to four years.

Blatter and Platini were initially banned over a CHF2 million (€1.8 million) payment made by Blatter to Platini in 2011 for consultancy work carried out for FIFA from 1998 until 2002, a payment which the FIFA Ethics Committee found had ‘no legal basis’ and violated the FIFA Code of Ethics. The Swiss Office of the Attorney General (OAG) is also investigating the agreement between Blatter and Platini, which it described as a ‘disloyal payment’.

Both Blatter and Platini have denied any wrongdoing over the payment, which was not made until 2011, nine years after he finished his alleged consultancy work for FIFA. Platini has argued that FIFA couldn’t afford to pay him until 2011, however analysis by The Sports Integrity Initiative showed that FIFA’s net income grew during the years that followed his consultancy work.

Platini has also denied that FIFA’s settlement of the owed money had anything to do with his decision not to stand against Blatter in a 2011 FIFA Presidential election. The payment also closely followed FIFA’s decision to appoint Russia and Qatar as hosts of the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups, respectively. Platini has admitted that he changed his vote to Qatar at the last minute.

Platini’s decision not to seek payment until 2011, a year in which FIFA reported relatively small profits, may just be coincidental. However, critics argue that his decision to seek payment at that time represented a poor choice, given the proximity of a FIFA election he was expected to contest and the controversial double appointment of Russia and Qatar as World Cup hosts, and the allegations of bribery that followed.

‘Michel Platini’s allegation that the payment was based on an oral agreement with Joseph Blatter in addition to the written contract of employment concluded with FIFA in 1999 was not considered convincing’, read a statement from the Swiss Federal Tribunal. ‘He was also accused of having obtained higher future pension benefits than those to which he would have been entitled’.