LAUSANNE: Michel Platini will be heard on April 29 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in appealing against his six-year suspension from all football activities by the ethics committee of world federation FIFA writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

The French president of European governing body UEFA – who had also been a vice-president of FIFA – six years of any football-related activity.

Platini submitted his appeal to sport’s Lausanne-based supreme court on March 2 when CAS agreed to try to reach a decision before the start of the European Championship finals in his French homeland in June and July.

The former three-times European Footballer of the Year had banned by FIFA’s ethics committee originally for eight years just before Christmas over misconduct concerning his acceptance of a SFr2m ‘disloyal payment’ from the then FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

The suspension was trimmed from eight to six years by the FIFA appeal committee.

Platini’s suspension prevented him standing for the presidency of FIFA in February. He has always denied wrongdoing and expressed a determination to clear his name and thus reassume the presidency of UEFA in time for the European finals.

#############