PARIS (AFP) - Michel Platini has decided not to attend his hearing before Fifa's ethics committee in Zurich, scheduled for Friday, his lawyers told AFP on Wednesday.

A statement from the legal representatives of the suspended Uefa president said he chose to boycott the hearing after "the verdict was already announced to the press by a spokesman...going against the presumption of innocence".

Platini and Fifa president Sepp Blatter are currently serving 90-day bans from all footballing activities after Swiss prosecutors opened a criminal investigation looking partly into a 2 million Swiss franc (S$2.8 million) payment Blatter authorised to Platini in 2011, reportedly for work done a decade earlier.

Both men risk being banned for life - Andreas Bantel, spokesman for Fifa's ethics committee, was quoted by French sports daily L'Equipe as saying that Platini would be sidelined for "several years".