Michel Platini to make a farewell speech at UEFA election
Monday 12 September 2016 13:11, UK
Michel Platini will attend the UEFA election in Athens on Wednesday and make a goodbye speech even though he is suspended from all football activity.
Platini has been the UEFA president since 2007 but he was forced to resign in May after he was found guilty of financial misconduct.
FIFA's ethics committee banned him for eight years for accepting "a disloyal payments" of £1.6m from Sepp Blatter in 2011.
The ban has been reduced on appeal to four years and Platini is willing to risk breaking it by accepting a UEFA invitation to make a goodbye speech at UEFA's Extraordinary Congress in Greece.
Platini's spokesman confirmed on Monday morning that Platini would be travelling to Athens and he was planning on addressing the Congress which will elect a new president.
The two candidates are Aleksander Ceferin, the president of the FA of Slovenia, and Michael Van Praag, the president of the Royal Netherlands FA (KNVB).
A spokesman for FIFA's ethics committee, Marc Tenbucken, said: "UEFA formally asked the adjudicatory chamber of the independent ethics committee for an exception for Michel Platini to be able to make a short farewell address to its congress in Athens.
"The chairman of the adjudicatory chamber, Mr Hans-Joachim Eckert, granted this exception as a gesture of humanity."
