PARIS—The FIFA ethics committee has requested a life ban for Michel Platini, the Frenchman’s lawyer said Tuesday, a move that would rule the UEFA president out of the race to succeed Sepp Blatter.
Thibaut d'Ales told The Associated Press that the maximum sanction was asked for when the FIFA ethics committee investigations unit submitted its final case report.
Platini faces a hearing before FIFA ethics judge Joachim Eckert in December.
“The overreaching of the request really convinces us of this commission’s total lack of credibility,” D'Ales said in a telephone interview. “There is not a single tangible element in this case that can confirm the suspicions.”
Platini is currently serving a 90-day ban over a $2 million payment of FIFA money he received in 2011 as backdated salary. He worked as a presidential adviser from 1998-2002 for Blatter, who also faces the ethics court’s judgment in the case.
Platini denies wrongdoing and says he had a verbal contract with Blatter to receive the money.
Eckert is expected to give his verdicts in the cases of Platini and Blatter in December. Any sanctions can be challenged at the FIFA appeals committee and Court of Arbitration for Sport.
D'Ales said he was informed of the ethics committee’s request on Monday and decided to make it public after it leaked in the French press. He said FIFA’s aim is to prove that there was no contract between Platini and Blatter.
