The story appears on

Page B8

May 4, 2013

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Sports » Soccer

Platini unimpressed

UEFA President Michel Platini is distinctly underwhelmed by Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund reaching the Champions League final and does not see it as a sign of a power shift toward Germany in European football.

"Conclusions are made every year with respect to the finalists," Platini said yesterday. "We said the same thing five years ago about English clubs when it was Manchester United and Chelsea in the final, and about Italian clubs when it was Milan against Juventus (in 2003)."

"I've never handed a (Champions League) trophy to a German club during my time (as president)," Platini said. "It's cyclical. It's a difficult cup to win and no team has won it two years a row, so I won't draw any conclusions about the fact there are two German clubs in the final."

Platini, however, did praise German clubs for the way they run their clubs financially, calling the German financial model "sane, healthy and clear. They can't have any deficit, not even one euro ... this is what we're trying to put into place (with Financial Fair Play rules).






 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend