GAME OVER FOR PLATINI AS COURT UPHOLDS LONG BAN

DISGRACED Michel Platini failed to overturn his ban from football yesterday in sport’s final appeal court — and the same damning verdict likely awaits Sepp Blatter. Platini’s six-year banishment was reduced to four years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne but the sanction runs beyond his UEFA presidential term that expires in March 2019 and the next FIFA leadership election in May 2019, ruling out any return to world football’s top table. Banned former FIFA president Blatter, whose murky £1.25million consultancy payment to Platini more than eight years after the work was done led to both men’s downfall, is yet to have his CAS case over his six-year ban heard. But as the evidence is so similar to that in the Platini case, the court’s decision is likely to be the same. Platini, whose failure to acknowledge any wrongdoing was a factor in the CAS judgement, continued to plead his innocence even at the end of the fanciful appeal process. He said in a statement: ‘I take note of today’s decision, but I see it as a profound injustice. The decision inflicts a suspension on me that stops me contesting the next election for the FIFA presidency. As agreed with the national associations, I am resigning from my duties as UEFA president to pursue my battle in front of the Swiss courts to prove my innocence.’ Yet the 60-year-old is not standing down as UEFA chief until the next Congress — likely to take place at a European football leaders’ summit in Athens in September, when his successor will be elected. That means Platini can still call himself UEFA president during Euro 2016 in France, where he is expected to attend games, though he is banned from official UEFA areas. CAS ruled that Platini was guilty of a conflict of interest for accepting that £1.25m payment from FIFA in 2011. It was paid four months before Blatter was elected for a fourth term as FIFA president. The ruling noted the ‘absence of any repentance’ on Platini’s part.