Platini refuses to attend FIFA hearing

Michel Platini has refused to attend his hearing with the FIFA Ethics Committee on Friday after accusing a spokesperson of breaching his “fundamental rights”.

The UEFA president and FIFA counterpart Sepp Blatter, both of whom are currently serving suspensions while allegations of a “disloyal payment” between the two are investigated, were due to appear before FIFA’s ethics committee judge Hans-Joachim Eckhart in Zurich this week.

A spokesman for the committee, Andreas Brantel, was quoted by L’Equipe earlier this week claiming that the allegations where “well founded” and that both men could face suspensions totalling several years.

Both Platini and Blatter have persistently denied any wrongdoing and the former France international branded the investigation “a sham” following the comments made by Bantel.

And the 60-year-old’s representatives have now stated he will not attend Friday’s hearing in person in order to express “his deepest indignation” with the entire process.

A statement released on Wednesday read: “He has decided not to attend his hearing at the FIFA ethics committee on December 18 2015 as the verdict of this ethics committee has been announced in the press last weekend by one of its spokespersons, Mr Andreas Bantel, in disregard of all fundamental rights, starting with the presumption of innocence.

“By this decision Michel Platini means to express his deepest indignation with a process he regards as solely political and intended to prevent him from standing for the FIFA presidency.

“The statement came soon after the FIFA ethics committee promised Platini a fair trial, saying: ‘We would like to clearly stress that the adjudicatory chamber of the ethics committee will deal with the present case in the same way as with any other procedure independently and in an unbiased manner’.”