Platini is innocent, insists lawyer

Michel Platini's lawyer is hopeful the suspended UEFA president and FIFA vice president will be cleared of any wrongdoing after pleading the Frenchman's case amid allegations of bribery and corruption.

Thibaud d'Ales fronted judge Hans-Joachim Eckhart and the FIFA Ethics Committee in Zurich on Friday without Platini, who boycotted the hearing, over claims a payment was received from suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

Platini - along with Blatter - was handed a 90-day ban in early October by the FIFA Ethics Committee over a "disloyal payment" allegedly made to him in 2011, while the three-time Ballon d'Or winner's appeal was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport last week.

However, speaking after the hearing, D'Ales insisted: "Mr Platini is innocent. That is what we have evidenced to the commission today through witness testimony and a number of other evidences.

"Now we are hoping that the ethics commission will render the law."

Platini refused to attend his hearing with the FIFA Ethics Committee after accusing a spokesperson of breaching his "fundamental rights".

A verdict is expected to be reached on Monday, with Platini and Blatter facing lifetime bans from football.