Michel Platini's suspension in 2015 from all football-related activity was "justified". The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) dismissed the former UEFA boss on Thursday 5 February.

The ECHR judges "that in view of the gravity of the offenses committed, of the high position that Mr. Platini occupied in football bodies and of the need to restore the reputation of this sport like that of Fifa, the sanction imposed seems neither excessive nor arbitrary ", according to a press release issued by the institution.

The Court also noted that Michel Platini "benefited from the internal institutional and procedural guarantees allowing him to contest the decision of Fifa and to assert his complaints".

The former playmaker of the Blues, now 64 years old, was suspended in late 2015 from any activity related to football after receiving 2 million Swiss francs (or 1.8 million euros) from Sepp Blatter, the ex-president of Fifa also suspended. This sum had been paid to him in 2011 for consultancy activities, exercised from 1998 to 2002. But there was never a written contract and this late payment was only the subject of an oral agreement with Sepp Blatter.

The suspension, which prevented Michel Platini from seeking the succession of Sepp Blatter to the International Federation, was initially eight years. It was then reduced to six years on appeal, then to four by the Sports Arbitral Tribunal (TAS), the highest sports court, based in Lausanne.

Before the ECHR, which sits in Strasbourg, Michel Platini invoked the violation of three articles of the ECHR to obtain its outright annulment.

He considered that the disciplinary procedures before Fifa and the CAS did not allow him to benefit from a fair trial, that the texts in force at the time of the facts, from 2007 to 2011, had not been applied and that his suspension was contrary to the freedom to exercise a professional activity and therefore violated his right to respect for private and family life.

The ECHR unanimously found his application "inadmissible", while acknowledging that the suspension had "negative repercussions" on his private life.

Michel Platini had "freely consented to the waiver of certain rights by signing compulsory arbitration clauses excluding legal remedies from ordinary courts", she noted.

He was "able to appeal against the measure imposed by Fifa before the CAS", which "duly motivated his decision to reduce but confirm the sanction," she concluded.

With AFP

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