Former UEFA President Michel Platini To Receive Payoff Despite Four-Year Ban

Former UEFA President Michel Platini is "set to receive a pay-off" from UEFA despite being banned from football for four years, according to Martyn Ziegler of the LONDON TIMES. He was suspended for taking a 2M Swiss franc ($2.04M) payment from FIFA, and his salary, "understood to be for about the same figure annually, stopped after he lost his final appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in April." However, the 61-year-old "still has many supporters" on UEFA's exec committee, who are "now poised to agree a severance payment for him." A measure of Platini’s support was that UEFA asked FIFA's ethics committee for him "to be allowed to make a farewell address" to the organization’s members at a congress in Athens last week. Platini has denied any wrongdoing, "saying the payment was verbally agreed" with former FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who was also banned (LONDON TIMES, 9/21).