Ex-UEFA official doubts authenticity o Platini 'memo'

BERLIN — A former general secretary of UEFA has expressed doubts about a document issued by European football's general body, which appears to support Michel Platini's claim he was paid by FIFA. French newspaper Journal du Dimanche say they possess a copy of a document which backs up Platini's claims he was paid an annual salary "of one million Swiss francs" for work as an advisor to world football's governing body FIFA. The paper reports that the document was distributed during a UEFA executive committee meeting in the Swedish capital Stockholm on Nov. 12, 1998. Platini is being investigated by FIFA and faces a life-time ban if found guilty of a breach of ethics. But Gerhard Aigner, who attended the Stockholm meeting as UEFA's general secretary more than 17 years ago, says he has doubts about the document's authenticity. "Platini was not a member of UEFA's executive committee at the time, so why would UEFA have any interest in his private affairs?" Aigner, 72, told SID, an AFP subsidiary on Monday. "I can't imagine there ever was such a document." Platini, the current UEFA president, was handed a provisional 90-day ban from all football activities on Oct. 8 while under investigation over a suspect payment of $2 million paid by FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who is also suspended, in 2011 allegedly for work carried out in 2002. The FIFA ethics committee will question Platini, and Blatter, on the affair between Dec. 16 and 18. Platini's lawyer Thibaud d'Ales said at the end of November that the ethics body's investigatory chamber wants the UEFA chief banned for life and is hopeful the document in question will clear his client's name. The 60-year-old former France great had previously been the favorite to become the next FIFA president when Blatter officially stands down and an election is held in February. CAS to rule on Platini appeal by Friday Platini's lawyers will appear at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) Tuesday as part of his appeal against his suspension from FIFA, with a decision due by Dec. 11, a CAS statement said. "In the arbitration procedure between Michel Platini and FIFA, the CAS has invited both parties' counsel to attend a preliminary hearing," Tuesday afternoon, it said. The hearing will be "limited to the issue as to whether or not the provisional 90-day suspension imposed on M. Platini should be temporarily lifted," the statement continued, adding that a decision on the appeal would be made by December 11, "at the latest." — Agencies