Former UEFA President Michel Platini "may receive a payoff" even though he has been banned from the sport after "being implicated in a scandal" that led to the fall of former FIFA President Sepp Blatter, according to Tariq Panja of BLOOMBERG. UEFA "has been in talks about a financial agreement for several months with advisers to Platini," whose mandate had been due to run through '19. His annual salary was about 2M Swiss francs ($2.04M), according to a person familiar with the discussions who "declined to be identified because the negotiations are private." UEFA said in a statement, "The overall matter of his remuneration since his suspension will be addressed by the UEFA Executive Committee in due course following advice and proposals from the newly formed UEFA Compensation Committee and legal experts." Under Swiss law UEFA "is under no obligation to provide Platini with a payoff," though several football officials in the region "are sympathetic to rewarding the Frenchman" for his achievements since being first elected UEFA head in '07, according to the person familiar with the matter. A spokesperson for Platini "did not respond to a call or an e-mailed request for comment." UEFA has "tightened its rules" since Platini’s exit. His salary and benefits "were set without a formal process" (BLOOMBERG, 9/20). In London, Ben Rumsby reported Platini "could receive a seven-figure pay-off" from UEFA. UEFA said in January that Platini would continue to receive his salary "until further notice" after it emerged FIFA would pay Blatter "until his successor as president was elected the following month." Any pay-off for Platini would "likely be met by outrage for campaigners for the reform of football’s governing bodies." UEFA was criticized last week for inviting the 61-year-old to address the extraordinary congress at which Aleksander Čeferin was elected his successor "by a landslide." Platini used the platform to protest his innocence "and vow to continue to fight to clear his name having had his suspension reduced on appeal but not wiped out altogether" (TELEGRAPH, 9/20).
