Suspended UEFA President Michel Platini's lawyer wants him to be "exonerated of any financial malpractice" after a French newspaper said it had uncovered evidence he was assigned to carry out paid work for FIFA "around the turn of the century," according to Teddy Cutler of the LONDON TIMES. Platini has been provisionally suspended from his role as a FIFA VP while an investigation takes place into a £1.3M payment he received from FIFA in '11. The former France midfielder has said it was payment for "serving as technical adviser" to Sepp Blatter between '99 and '02 -- long before Platini became UEFA president -- "which could not be paid at the time" due to FIFA's financial situation. The newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche said that it had obtained a document dating back to Nov. 12, 1998 which was distributed to members of UEFA's exec committee in which it is written that "we hear about a salary of one million Swiss francs" for Platini to take on an advisory role with FIFA. Thibaud d'Ales, Platini's lawyer, said, "This document just shows, contrary to the argument on which this accusation rests, that Michel Platini's contract with FIFA had no mysterious nature, and numerous people, including UEFA and FIFA, knew about it since 1998" (LONDON TIMES, 12/6). REUTERS' Brian Homewood reported Blatter has said there was a "verbal agreement between the two while Platini says the payment was delayed only because of financial problems at FIFA." On Sunday, Le Journal du Dimanche published a 23-page memo which it said was presented to UEFA exec committee members in Nov. '98 and mentioned that Platini was being paid 1M Swiss francs a year for work he was doing for FIFA. The newspaper said the memo was presented at a meeting in Stockholm chaired by Lennart Johansson, who was UEFA president at the time. Thomas Clay, one of Platini's lawyers, said, "From the moment that we have proof of an agreement between FIFA and Mr. Platini, and of knowledge of this agreement by officials of UEFA, then this (ethics committee) inquiry falls down. For us, it's very important evidence that Mr Platini has always been telling the truth" (REUTERS, 12/6). The BBC reported both men are "due to attend personal hearings" with FIFA's ethics judge starting on Dec. 16 and final verdicts "could be published" as early as Dec. 21. Platini, who had been "widely tipped as Blatter's successor" at FIFA, still hopes to be a candidate in the FIFA presidential election on Feb. 26. However, he will "only be entitled to enter the ballot if he clears his name in sufficient time prior to polling day" (BBC, 12/6).
PLEADING HIS CASE: REUTERS' Joshua Franklin reported Blatter said in a Swiss newspaper interview published on Saturday that he "expects to make his case" to FIFA's ethics committee in the coming weeks. Blatter said, "The week after next, I have the chance to comment. Then the ethics committee must prove that I have behaved unethically. And one cannot prove what is not true." Blatter also said it was "super" that a package of reforms proposed to clean up scandal-plagued FIFA "was approved so easily this week" (REUTERS, 12/5).
