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FIFA CORRUPTION SCANDAL

PLATINI

‘I’m football’s medieval knight,’ says Platini

European football supremo Michel Platini insisted on Thursday that he remains the best man to lead scandal-hit Fifa despite currently being suspended from the sport. Platini compared himself to a medieval knight.

'I'm football's medieval knight,' says Platini
Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter. Photo: AFP

The French legend, one of seven candidates to succeed Sepp Blatter as Fifa president, believes that his experience as a player, coach and administrator far outstrips any of his six rivals.

“In all modesty, I am the best-placed to lead world football,” Platini, 60, told Swiss daily Le Matin in an interview in which he even went on to compare himself to a medieval knight.

“I am the only one to have a broad vision for football.”

Platini and Blatter are both suspended for 90 days while an investigation is carried out into a controversial €1.8 million payment made by the Fifa chief to the Frenchman in 2011.

“I have been a player, coach of the French team, a club official at Nancy, organiser of the World Cup and, today, the head of the most powerful football confederation, a mission that I have accomplished with honesty,” he added.

Platini faces competition from Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, Musa Bility, Jerome Champagne, Gianni Infantino, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa and Tokyo Sexwale for the Fifa top job.

Infantino is the general-secretary of UEFA and was a shock candidate for the February 26 vote which will decide who will succeed Blatter.

Platini said that Infantino's nomination represented a “plan B” on the part of UEFA.

“I am delighted. The day that I am cleared, everything will be fine,” added Platini.

“The executive committee, Gianni and me, we will meet to re-evaluate the situation. And we will choose the best solution for football.”

The Platini camp claimed on Monday that Infantino had given an “oral” reassurance to the UEFA executive committee that he would quit the Fifa race if Platini was cleared of wrongdoing.

However, a source close to the Frenchman also added: “The truth in politics today is not the same on the day after”.

Platini blasted the suspension and its negative effect on his chances of putting across his case.

“It has prevented me from campaigning and fighting on equal terms,” he said before waxing lyrical over his current predicament.

“I feel like I am a medieval knight facing a fortress. I am trying to storm it for football but instead all I get is boiling oil poured on my head.”

Despite his weariness with the ongoing investigation, Platini is adamant that he will be cleared.

“I was always assured that the payment (from Fifa to himself) had followed the rules of internal compliance.”

Platini refused to entertain thoughts that he had fallen victim to an elaborate plot engineered by Blatter to blacken his name and reputation.

“I do not want to believe in a conspiracy theory,” he said.

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FOOTBALL

Trial over 2006 German World Cup corruption opens in Switzerland

Three former German football officials and ex-FIFA Secretary General Urs Linsi went on trial on Monday in Switzerland over suspicions that Germany bought votes to obtain the 2006 World Cup.

Trial over 2006 German World Cup corruption opens in Switzerland
Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP

The three defendants have indicated that they will not be present at the hearing in Bellinzona for a variety of reasons, including fear of travelling because of coronavirus contagion.

Swiss Linsi, 70, former German Football Association (DFB) presidents Wolfgang Niersbach, 69, and Theo Zwanziger, 74, and 78-year-old former DFB General Secretary Horst R. Schmidt are being prosecuted for “fraud”.

They are accused by the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office (BA) of concealing from the DFB the true destination of a transfer of 6.7 million euros ($7.6 million today), paid in 2005 by the organising committee to former Adidas boss, the late Robert Louis-Dreyfus, via FIFA.

The case of former World Cup organising committee chairman Franz Beckenbauer is being heard separately because of the former Germany captain's poor health.

The investigation was prompted by a report in German publication Der Spiegel in 2015 that Germany had used a secret fund of 10 million Swiss francs (6.7 million euros at the time) to buy votes and obtain the rights to host the competition at the expense of South Africa.

Beckenbauer is suspected of having asked Louis-Dreyfus, to contribute to this fund shortly before the vote on the host in the summer of 2000.

Louis-Dreyfus was allegedly reimbursed by the German Football Association on the pretext of expenses related to a FIFA gala evening, which ever took place.

Zwanziger, Niersbach and Schmidt have also been charged with tax fraud in Germany and the case is expected to come to trial in the coming months. cpb/pb/td

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