(REUTERS) – Banned UEFA president Michel Platini’s Panamanian bank account was declared to the authorities in Switzerland, where he lives, his lawyer said in an interview published by French newspaper Le Figaro yesterday.“Holding bank accounts through companies is not illegal as long as they are declared, which was the case here,” the lawyer was cited as saying.
The interview came a day after the ‘Panama Papers’ documents leaked from a Panamanian law firm triggered investigations into possible financial wrongdoing by politicians and other high-profile figures around the world.
European soccer boss and former French international Platini is appealing against a six-year ban from taking part in international football activity.
The ban is related to a payment of 2 million Swiss francs ($2.09 million) made to the Frenchman in 2011 and was imposed by world soccer’s governing body, FIFA.