Michel Platini: Uefa president to resign after ban appeal fails

Uefa president Michel Platini will resign from European football's governing body after failing to have a six-year ban from football overturned.

A Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) panel reduced the ban to four years on Monday. Following the judgement, the 60-year-old said he would be stepping down.

Platini and former Fifa counterpart Sepp Blatter, were last year found guilty of ethics breaches over a 2m Swiss Franc (£1.3m) "disloyal payment".

The pair, who deny wrongdoing, had their original bans reduced from eight to six years by the Fifa appeals committee.

Platini had taken his case to Cas seeking to get the ban overturned, but a three-man panel said it "was not convinced by the legitimacy of the payment".

The two said the payment in 2011 was made for consultancy work Platini had carried out for Blatter between 1998 and 2002, and that they had a "gentleman's agreement" on when the balance was settled.

After Cas returned its judgement, Platini said in a statement: "I am resigning from my duties as Uefa president to pursue my battle in front of the Swiss courts to prove my innocence in this case."
He added that he considered the judgement "a profound injustice".

Uefa said it would meet on 18 May "to discuss next steps". "In the meantime, there will be no Uefa president appointed ad interim," it added.

BBC Sports