Platini fails to attend FIFA ethics committee hearing

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Suspended European football chief Michel Platini will not attend Friday?s FIFA ethics committee hearing in protest at what he condemns as a political process designed to prevent him running to lead the world governing body, his lawyers said on Wednesday.

Platini was provisionally suspended for 90 days on Oct 8, alongside outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter, over a suspicious payment from FIFA to Platini, deepening a corruption scandal that has engulfed football?s ruling body.

The ethics panel is set to rule on their cases, and could impose much longer bans than the provisional suspensions if it finds the men guilty of violations.

Blatter is due to appear on Thursday. It will be Blatter?s return inside FIFA?s home after an enforced absence of more than two months. Both men have denied any wrongdoing.

Platini?s lawyers objected to comments in French newspaper L?Equipe by ethics committee spokesman Andreas Bantel that the former France captain would be sidelined for ?several years?.

?Suppose even the charge of corruption is not accepted by the chamber, there are many other offences such as a conflict of interest, mismanagement or falsification of accounts,? Bantel was also quoted as saying by L?Equipe before its website story was altered.

Bantel, who has highlighted that he represents only the prosecutors in FIFA?s in-house court, not the judges, said that the French newspaper had published ?an unauthorised interview? and his comments had been made in a personal capacity.