Blatter takes case to CAS

Sepp Blatter will mount his final challenge against his six-year Fifa ban today, following more than a year of scandal that saw him thrown out of football in disgrace.

The former Fifa boss has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) seeking to overturn a suspension imposed by world football's governing body.

"I'm very confident," the 80-year-old Blatter told AFP last week, although his prospects for an outright victory would appear to be remote.

The now infamous, endlessly debated case first emerged in September of last year, when Swiss prosecutors said they were investigating Blatter over a suspect 2 million Swiss franc ($2.8m) payment he authorised in 2011 to his one-time heir apparent, Michel Platini.

Those revelations initially triggered a provisional suspension by Fifa's ethics committee.

A full investigation and trial by Fifa's in-house court found Blatter and Platini guilty of ethics violations. They were banned from football for eight years in December.

A Fifa appeals committee cut those penalties to six years in February, just before Blatter's successor, Gianni Infantino, was elected as Fifa's new president.

Blatter's hopes for redemption at CAS are likely hampered by Platini's failed appeal at the Lausanne-based court.

In a May ruling, CAS judges said they were "not convinced" that the $2m payment was legitimate.

They did, however, reduce the suspension against the former European football chief to four years. Throughout the protracted saga, both Blatter and Platini have insisted the payment was part of a legitimate oral contract.

Arguments at CAS are expected to last one day, although a decision may take several weeks. - AFP.