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UEFA President Quits After Failing to Reverse Ban


FILE - UEFA President Michel Platini, shown in May 2015, says he'll step down as head of European football's governing body. The Court of Arbitration for Court refused to overturn his ban from the sport over a suspect payment.
FILE - UEFA President Michel Platini, shown in May 2015, says he'll step down as head of European football's governing body. The Court of Arbitration for Court refused to overturn his ban from the sport over a suspect payment.

Michel Platini will resign as the president of UEFA, European football's governing body, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport failed to overturn his ban. However, the court reduced the sanction from six to four years.

The court found Platini guilty of receiving a suspect payment of $2 million from FIFA, world football’s governing body, for working as an adviser to its then-president, Sepp Blatter. Blatter resigned from his post in 2015 amid an ongoing corruption scandal.

According to Platini, the verdict is a "profound injustice" and he will look to pursue the case in a Swiss court in an effort to preserve his legacy.

"This decision is inflicting me a suspension whose length will de facto prevent me – as if by chance – from bidding for the next FIFA presidential election," he said in a statement.

Platini’s tenure as head of UEFA began in 2007 and was set to expire in March 2019. The next FIFA presidential election is scheduled for May 2019.

In a statement, the court said it "was not convinced by the legitimacy of the $2 million payment, which was only recognized by Mr. Platini and Mr. Blatter."

The payment was not based on any sort of contract and did not correlate with any unpaid part of Platini’s salary, the court said, and it came "more than eight years after the end of his work relations."

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