Disgraced former FIFA president Sepp Blatter appeared before sport's highest tribunal, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), on Thursday to appeal against his six-year ban from soccer.
The 80-year-old, who headed soccer's global governing body for 17 years until he resigned in June 2015, was banned from all soccer-related activity last December along with the then-European soccer boss, Michel Platini.
"My name wouldn't be Sepp Blatter if I didn't have faith, if I wasn't optimistic," he told reporters as he arrived for the hearing. "I will accept the verdict because, in football, we learn to win, this is easy, but we also learn to lose, but this is not good, I wouldn't want to lose."
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