Platini snubs Fifa ethics committee hearing
Michel Platini, the boss of European football's governing body Uefa, has opted to boycott his hearing before the ethics committee of world football's ruling organisation, Fifa.
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A statement from the former France captain's lawyers said he chose to miss the panel's meeting in Zurich because he believed a decision had already been made.
"The verdict was already announced to the press by a spokesman ... going against the presumption of innocence," the statement added.
Platini, 60, and the Fifa president Sepp Blatter are the subjects of 90-day bans from all footballing activities after Swiss prosecutors opened a criminal investigation looking partly into a 1.8-million-euro payment Blatter authorised to Platini in 2011, reportedly for work done a decade earlier.
The provisional ban is due to expire on 5 January but both men risk being banned for life by the tribunal.
Platini's campaign to succeed Blatter has been thwarted by the ban.
It meant that he was unable to attend last Saturday's draw in Paris for next summer's European championships, which are being held in France.
In 1984 Platini, at the tip of the "carré magique" comprising Jean Tigana, Luis Fernandez and Alain Giresse, skippered France to the title.
On Wednesday, a Fifa statement said: "The ethics committee will deal with the case in the same way as with any other procedure independently and in an unbiased manner."
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