Michel Platini said FIFA ruling to uphold his ban from all football-related activity is “insulting and shameful” and labelled it a “political decision”.
The former UEFA president and Sepp Blatter had their appeals against their bans rejected by the FIFA appeals committee but they were reduced from eight years to six, based on the mitigating factor of their service to the game.
The two men were banned in December over a “disloyal payment” of £1.3m between them in 2011, made without a written FIFA contract, when both claimed they had a verbal agreement for FIFA to pay Platini an additional salary for his work as Blatter’s presidential adviser from 1999-2002.
Both men signalled their intention to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) following the announcement of the FIFA appeals committee.
However, in a statement, Platini slammed the decision, saying he had been the victim of a conspiracy that had the aim of stopping him from running for the FIFA presidency in Friday’s election.
“It is an insulting decision, shameful and a denial of rights,” he said. “I am the victim of a system which has only one main objective: to prevent me presenting myself for the FIFA presidency in order to protect certain interests that I was about to question.
“In reality, it is a political decision taken by a bureaucracy that has no counterweight at the heart of its organisation. I’ll take all possible recourse, starting with CAS. I’ve asked my lawyers to get on to it immediately.
“I’ll fight this all I can to prove my innocence, to have my rights reinstated and to determine who are the people responsible for this cabal. If, as I think, this injustice profits certain people, then that would be called a scandal.
“I thank the 54 European associations making up UEFA for their trust and their support and all those who have shown me their friendship during the past months. They believe in me. They are right.
“The charges against me are baseless, built from the ground up and surreal in view of the facts and the explanations I gave during the hearing.”
Earlier, in a statement through his spokesman, Blatter said: “I am very disappointed by the appeal committee of FIFA and I will take it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.”
