Platini subjected to sham FIFA procedure, say legal team

PARIS (Reuters) - FIFA's Ethics Committee have subjected European football chief Michel Platini to a "sham procedure", the Frenchman's legal team said on Friday after he lost an appeal to have a provisional 90-day ban overturned. Reacting to comments in French newspaper L'Equipe by Ethics Committee spokesman Andreas Bantel, a statement from Platini's representatives said the remarks "constituted a patent violation of the presumption of innocence". "They demonstrate also that the Ethics Committee is pursuing a political objective for whom contradictory arguments and the hearing that it fixed itself for 18 December will manifestly serve no purpose. "Mr Platini, for whom the sanction already seems to have been fixed (decided) by the FIFA Ethics Committee before his explanations have been heard, strongly denounces these practices which showcase the sham procedure of which he has been the object for weeks," read the statement. The committee provisionally suspended Platini and outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter from the sport on Oct. 8, deepening the corruption scandal that has engulfed football's governing body. On Friday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ordered FIFA not to extend the ban, saying that doing so would be an unjustified restriction of his access to justice. Platini's suspension ends 52 days before the election for a new FIFA president in which he had hoped to run. His only realistic hope of re-entering the presidential race is if he is cleared by FIFA. (Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Tony Jimenez)