Platini out of FIFA race but vows to clear name
Print Edition
MICHEL Platini’s dream of becoming the next FIFA president is over.
Platini said that he remains determined to overturn the eight-year ban he was handed by FIFA’s ethics committee last month, but that the deadline for the February 26 election is too short and renders his candidacy impossible.
“I’m withdrawing from the race for FIFA presidency,” Platini, the suspended president of European football’s governing body UEFA, said in an interview on Thursday. “The timing is not good for me. I don’t have the means to fight on equal terms with the other candidates. I have not been given the chance to play the game. Bye, bye FIFA. Bye, bye FIFA presidency.”
Platini’s bid to succeed Sepp Blatter in soccer’s top job was put on hold because of a payment he received from his former mentor back in 2011. Blatter and Platini were last month banned for eight years for conflict of interest in the 2 million Swiss franc (US$1.35 million) payment deal that is also the subject of a criminal investigation in Switzerland.
Five candidates, none of them clear favorites, will take part in the election and a chance for the job of rebuilding the sport’s beleaguered governing body.
They are Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein of Jordan, Asian Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa of Bahrain, former FIFA official Jerome Champagne of France, UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino of Switzerland and South Africa’s Tokyo Sexwale.
Platini, meanwhile, hopes to clear his name at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The Frenchman was not authorized to bypass FIFA’s appeal procedure.
“I’ve spent more time in hearing rooms than on football pitches speaking about 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 or football news,” said Platini. “I’m taking this philosophically, let’s wait and see what happens. But injustice is revolting me and I’m trying to fight it.”
Platini and Blatter were cleared of corruption charges in December but suspended for a series of breaches including conflict of interest. But Platini, who worked at FIFA as Blatter’s special adviser from 1998 to 2002, said he has no regret over the payment.
“I can’t have any regret in that story because things fell upon my head while I haven’t done anything wrong,” Platini, 60, said. “I’m struggling to understand what happened, unless there was a will somewhere to prevent me from bidding.”
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