Michel Platini arrived at the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Tuesday pledging to "tell the truth, only the truth" at his appeal against a 90-day FIFA ban.
The suspended UEFA president wants CAS to freeze his ban by Friday, allowing him to resume campaigning for the FIFA presidency ahead of the Feb. 26 election. It would also allow the former France captain to attend the 2016 European Championship draw on Saturday in Paris.
Platini was the clear favorite to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president until they were quizzed by Swiss authorities on Sept. 25 over a $2 million payment to the Frenchman from FIFA in 2011.
"My lawyers have done a very good job," Platini said in French after leaving the court building in lausanne following a two-hour hearing. "You know that I don't like injustices. I hope that I was well heard today."
Platini and Blatter face possible life bans when they appear before the FIFA ethics committee at the governing body's headquarters in Zurich next week.
The case centers on the payment and timing of the $2 million that Blatter approved for Platini in 2011 as backdated salary. Platini was a presidential adviser to Blatter from 1998-2002.
The ethics panel has said it hopes to return verdicts on Platini and Blatter before Christmas.
Blatter has not yet appealed his provisional ban at CAS.
FIFA warns members
ZURICH: FIFA has told its 209 member federations of their "major deficiencies" handling tens of millions of dollars in project money this year.
FIFA acting secretary general Markus Kattner says in a letter: "Control of FIFA development funds will be reinforced."
Problems included failure to have a bank account specific for FIFA-approved money and poorly documented cash payments.
FIFA allocated $55 million to give each member a basic $250,000 annual grant in 2016. Members can get an additional $600,000 for specific projects.
committee to run CONCACAF
MIAMI: The CONCACAF football body will go without a president until May after its past three leaders were indicted in the FIFA bribery case.
The North and Central American and Caribbean confederation said its executive committee decided on Monday to have a collective leadership for five months and not appoint another interim president. "In light of current events, it is critical that the confederation's next president be determined by a public election and the scrutiny that comes with it," CONCACAF said in a statement.
A vacancy opened when acting president Alfredo Hawit of Honduras was arrested in Zurich last Thursday on a US Department of Justice request. Hawit, a FIFA vice president, was among seven senior CONCACAF region officials in the latest DOJ indictment to rock football's governing body and rip through its latin American leaders.
Previous CONCACAF presidents Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands and Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago were charged in a first indictment published in May.
CONCACAF said its presidential election is scheduled on May 12 in Mexico City. They opted not to follow its own statutes, which would have elevated senior vice president Justino Compean of Mexico to the top job.