FIFA president Gianni Infantino has given a mixed reception to the Court of Arbitration for Sport's decision to uphold his former boss Michel Platini's ban from football.
Platini
had hoped sport's highest court would squash his six-year ban but the
Lausanne-based body only reduced it to four years, effectively ending
his career in the game.
Speaking
to journalists in Mexico City after his first FIFA Council meeting,
Infantino said: 'As president, I respect the decision of CAS, no doubt
about that.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino is sad at the decision to uphold his former
boss Michel Platini's footballing ban
Michel Platini, pictured in December, will resign as UEFA president after failing to have his ban overturned
'On
a personal level, of course, I'm very sad about the decision. I've
followed Michel for nine years at UEFA, seven as general secretary.
'As
UEFA president, he and I did some great things together and, at this
moment, I really want to focus on those positive memories.'
Infantino only entered the race to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA boss because Platini's ban left UEFA without a candidate.
Platini
and Blatter, his former mentor, were initially given eight-year bans by
a FIFA ethics committee in December over a two million Swiss francs
(£1.4m) payment the veteran Swiss administrator paid the France and
Juventus legend in 2011. These bans were reduced to six years by a FIFA
appeals panel in February.
The
pair have always claimed this was the balance of money Platini was owed
since 2002 for consultancy work, and he had agreed to wait for payment
until FIFA could better afford it.
The
basis for this payment was what they described as a 'gentleman's
agreement' to pay Platini one million Swiss francs (£700,000) a year.
Former UEFA General Secretary Infantino says that he and Platini did some great things together
But
the three-man CAS panel said they could only find evidence for a salary
of 300,000 Swiss francs and noted the payment was made shortly before
the contentious 2011 FIFA presidential election that saw Blatter
installed for a fourth term.
In
witheringly understated terms, the CAS ruling said it 'was not
convinced by the legitimacy' of the payment and it represented a clear
conflict of interests.
It
added that while six years was too severe, Platini deserved a
significant ban because of an 'absence of any repentance' and the damage
he had done to FIFA's reputation.
Blatter,
who appeared as a witness at Platini's hearing on 29 April, has not had
his appeal yet but nobody would be surprised if he withdraws from the
fray.
Within
minutes of the decision being published, the 60-year-old Frenchman
issued a statement that attacked it as a 'deep injustice' and heralded
his determination to fight on through the Swiss federal courts.
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter (left), pictured with Platini in 2015, is serving a six-year ban from football
With
his chances of victory there remote, he will resign as UEFA president, a
position he has held since 2007, at next week's meeting of the
executive committee in Basle.
The
European body has been operating without a president since December and
with only an interim general secretary since Infantino's promotion to
the top job in world football.
That
provisional replacement, Greece's Theodore Theodoridis is expected to
throw his hat into the ring to succeed Platini, along with the veterans
Angel Maria Villar and Michael van Praag, and perhaps a younger
candidate from the trio of former players now running national
associations in eastern Europe: Poland's Zbigniew Boniek, Dejan
Savicevic of Montenegro and Croatian Davor Suker.
The
winner of what promises to be a tight race should be decided at a UEFA
meeting in Athens in September, just in time to lead the vital talks
about revamping the Champions League from 2018.
For
Platini, he must now get used to a life outside the football bubble,
which will be particularly hard during next month's European
Championships in France, 32 years after he led Les Bleus to victory on
home soil in 1984.
One
small consolation might be that his former protege Infantino seemed
reluctant in Mexico City to even think about chasing him for the
'disloyal payment' he owes FIFA.
'No,
now is not the moment to speculate about these things. The decision has
just be taken today - it's not the question now,' he said.
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