NYON, Switzerland (AP) \u2014 Michel Platini\u2019s dream of becoming the next FIFA president is over.<\/p>\n
Platini told The Associated Press on Thursday that he remains determined to overturn the eight-year ban he was handed by FIFA\u2019s ethics committee last month, but that the deadline for the Feb. 26 election is too short and renders his candidacy impossible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m withdrawing from the race for FIFA presidency,\u201d Platini told the Associated Press in an interview. \u201cThe timing is not good for me. I don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Platini\u2019s bid to succeed Blatter and take football\u2019s top job was put on hold because of a payment he received from his former mentor back in 2011. Blatter and Platini were banned for eight years last month for conflict of interest in the 2 million Swiss franc (\u00ac\u00a31.35 million) payment deal that is also the subject of a criminal investigation in Switzerland.<\/p>\n
Platini said he still hopes to clear his name at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The 60-year-old Frenchman was not authorized to bypass FIFA\u2019s appeal procedure, which states that he will only be able to turn to CAS once FIFA\u2019s appeal committee will have ruled on the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spent more time in hearing rooms than on football pitches speaking about 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 or football news,\u201d said Platini, refusing to call the past three months the most difficult period of his life. \u201cI\u2019m taking this philosophically, let\u2019s wait and see what happens. But injustice is revolting me and I\u2019m trying to fight it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s special adviser from 1998 to 2002, said he has no regret over the payment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t have any regret in that story because things fell upon my head while I haven\u2019t done anything wrong,\u201d Platini said during the interview in a Nyon hotel. \u201cI\u2019m struggling to understand what happened, unless there was a will somewhere to prevent me from bidding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without naming them, Platini asserted that \u201cmany national federations wanted me as president\u201d and that he received about 100 letters of support as well as 50 promised votes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had 150 associations thinking that I\u2019m the right person to solve FIFA\u2019s problems,\u201d Platini said. \u201cIt won\u2019t happen. But there is no age limitation, so maybe I\u2019ll come back in 20 years. Who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n
The former Juventus player did not give explicit support to UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino, who has been backed by Europe\u2019s governing body in a candidacy prompted by the suspension imposed by FIFA on Platini.<\/p>\n
\u201cEurope needed a candidate and the executive committee chose Gianni Infantino,\u201d Platini said. \u201cLet\u2019s see how things work out and see if Gianni can win. I don\u2019t think it will be easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Platini\u2019s fall from grace has been quick, spectacular and unexpected. Just four months ago, he was considered the favorite in the race.<\/p>\n
But his campaign derailed after he was questioned on Sept. 25 in a Swiss federal investigation of suspected criminal mismanagement at FIFA.<\/p>\n
Platini was paid in February 2011, just before Blatter began campaigning for re-election against Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar. Platini\u2019s UEFA urged its members weeks before the June 2011 election to back Blatter, who was elected unopposed when Bin Hammam was implicated in bribery.<\/p>\n
Few FIFA officials knew of the Platini payment which emerged during a wider Swiss probe of the governing body\u2019s business affairs, including suspected money laundering in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests.<\/p>\n
Asked whether he understood critics saying he should have been more careful with the way he handled the FIFA payment, and for example asked for a written contract, Platini said \u201cthere is nothing wrong in claiming what one has promised.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI just did what every employee in this world would have done,\u201d Platini said in a defiant tone. \u201cI\u2019ve done what I needed to do. I have nothing to reproach myself with. I think they are making me pay for being UEFA president, I think the Zurich administration does not wish someone from UEFA to head FIFA. Because we are beautiful, we are big, we are rich, and we are the strongest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Platini\u2019s withdrawal from the FIFA presidential race marks the end of his steady rise to the summit of football politics. The former playmaker, who won the European Championship with France and the Golden Ball three times, proved to be a canny politician after an unimpressive period as France manager.<\/p>\n
Platini, who was joint president of the organizing committee for the 1998 World Cup in France, defeated incumbent Lennart Johansson by 27 votes to 23 for the leadership of European soccer\u2019s governing body in 2007. At UEFA, he sought to curb clubs\u2019 overspending, introduced a minimum 10-game ban for racist abuse by players, added more teams to the European Championship and oversaw the continued commercial success of the Champions League.<\/p>\n
Platini was long seen as a likely successor at the top of world football to Sepp Blatter, whose first successful campaign as FIFA president he supported in 1998. But Platini finally chose not to stand against Blatter when he stood for re-election again in 2015.<\/p>\n
It was only after FIFA was plunged into its worst crisis that Platini clearly distanced himself from Blatter, calling on the FIFA boss stand down. After the arrests of several senior football officials on fraud charges, Blatter finally announced that he would step aside and Platini launched his bid, vowing to restore \u201cdignity\u201d at the top of the governing body.<\/p>\n
Platini however said he remains a strong supporter of Blatter \u201cfor many things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a great personality. He has done many beautiful things in football,\u201d Platini said. \u201cHe also did bad things, certainly. I\u2019ve supported him, I worked with him. I sincerely wish him to be at FIFA\u2019s congress (in February) to bid goodbye to FIFA.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NYON, Switzerland (AP) \u2014 Michel Platini\u2019s dream of becoming the next FIFA president is over. Platini told The Associated Press on Thursday that he remains determined to overturn the eight-year ban he was handed by FIFA\u2019s ethics committee last month, but that the deadline for the Feb. 26 election is too short and renders his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-29073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29073"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=29073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}