Blatter lawyer: No evidence of "improper motivation" in Platini agreement

Sepp Blatter's lawyer Richard Cullen claims there is "no evidence of any improper motivation" in an agreement between FIFA and Michel Platini which resulted in the pair being banned from all football-related activities.

FIFA president Blatter and vice-president Platini were handed 90-day suspensions by the Ethics Commission in early October over a "disloyal payment" made to the Frenchman in 2011.

The pair deny any wrongdoing but had their appeals against the bans rejected by FIFA's Appeal Committee on Wednesday.

Blatter's lawyer revealed they will press forward with attempts to clear the outgoing president's name and claimed there is no evidence to support allegations of wrongdoing.

"President Blatter is disappointed by today's decision of the Appeal Committee regarding his provisional suspension," a statement said.

"However, as the opinion notes, the provisional suspension was an ex parte [one-sided] action taken on the sole request of the Investigatory Chamber.

"Noticeably absent from the opinion and these proceedings is any evidence of any improper motivation or purpose for the agreement between FIFA and Mr. Platini.

"The Appeal Committee rendered this decision on November 3 but released it only today, over two weeks later.

"President Blatter is committed to clearing his name and hopes this inexplicable delay is not an effort to deny him, during his elected term, a fair hearing before a neutral body.

"President Blatter will continue his appeals and looks forward to the opportunity to be heard, including through the presentation of evidence and argument of counsel, and thereby demonstrate he has engaged in no misconduct."