CAS to hear Sepp Blatter case on August 25

Paris (AFP) – FIFA’s disgraced former president Sepp Blatter’s appeal against his six-year ban from football will be heard at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on August 25, it was announced Friday.

The CAS made no official statement on Friday but released a list of hearings with Blatter pencilled among a number of other cases.

In May the CAS reduced UEFA chief Michel Platini’s ban to four years saying the penalty initially imposed by FIFA’s ethics committee was “too severe”.

In December 2015 FIFA judges originally banned Blatter and Platini for eight years over a 2 million Swiss franc ($2 million, 1.8 million euros) payment that Blatter sent to Platini in 2011. 

An appeals body at world football’s governing body reduced their bans to six years in February, citing mitigating circumstances. 

Blatter and Platini have claimed the funds were part of a legitimate oral contract in connection with consulting work that Platini did for FIFA between 1999 and 2002. 

Blatter is under criminal investigation in Switzerland over the transaction and other aspects of his management of FIFA.