Michel Platini facing lifetime ban by Fifa ethics committee, his lawyer claims

Platini is provisionally suspended from Fifa's Executive Committee due to an investigation into a £1.3m payment made to him by Fifa president Sepp Blatter

Uefa president is barred from election until cleared by Fifa’s ethics committee

Fifa's ethic committee are seeking to impose a lifetime ban on Uefa president Michel Platini, according to the lawyer of the 60-year-old Frenchman.

Hans-Joachim Eckert, the German judge who chairs the adjudicatory chamber of Fifa’s ethics committee, has opened formal proceedings against both Platini and Fifa president Sepp Blatter after receiving the final report of an investigation into alleged serious breaches of their ethical code regarding a £1.3m payment made to the Uefa chief by Blatter in 2011.

However,Platini's lawyer Thibaut d'Ales has told Associated Press that the maximum sanction was recommended in the form of a lifetime ban for the former France international footballer.

Both face lengthy bans if they are found guilty, with a decision believed to be made in December over their futures with Fifa. Platini hopes to succeed Blatter when the next Fifa president is elected on 26 February 2016, but any ban will rule his application invalid and he won’t be allowed to run for the presidency.

Blatter and Platini are currently provisionally suspended by Fifa pending the outcome of their investigation into them. Both deny any wrongdoing.

French sports daily L'Equipe reported D'Ales as saying the recommended lifetime ban was a "pure scandal" and "disproportionate" and claimed that it had been deliberately leaked to further damage Platini's hopes of running for the FIFA presidency.

D'Ales added: "This ban is subject to corruption being proved but it is clearly a disproportionate punishment.

"In releasing this, there is clearly a desire to harm. The masks are slipping one by one in FIFA, the electoral calendar is being manipulated and there is a strategy to eliminate Platini as a candidate."

Hans-Joachim Eckert, the German judge who heads the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's ethics committee, opened proceedings against the pair on Monday after studying reports from investigators and a decision is expected before Christmas.

Blatter and Platini - who are both provisionally suspended for 90 days - are facing Charges of four ethics code breaches: mismanagement, conflict of interest, false accounting and non co-operation with or criticising the ethics committee.

Other senior FIFA figures previously to receive lifetime bans include Jack Warner (Trinidad and Tobago), Chuck Blazer (USA), Mohamed Bin Hammam (Qatar) and Manilal Fernando (Sri Lanka).

Additional reporting by Martyn Ziegler of PA