By Andrew Warshaw
February 19 – UEFA president Michel Platini has used his organisation’s own publication, Uefa Direct, to appeal for the game to pull together to eliminate both cheating and off-the-field foul play.
With football suffering from constant negative headlines – from match-fixing to financial impropriety to racism – Platini has launched a passionate demand for greater fair play by players, clubs, fans and even officials, warning that there was no place for “any notion of agreements being reached, compromises being struck or matches being fixed.”
“When footballers lace up their boots, they must do so with a view to winning. Any hint of calculation is nothing less than an affront to their creed,” Platini writes.
“Cheating of any kind is unacceptable, as it represents an attack on the very integrity of competition, which demands that all parties rely solely on their own strengths in pursuing victory. Of course, there has never been – and never will be – equality in terms of strength. There will always be big clubs and smaller clubs.”
Platini describes as “deplorable” the constant accumulation of debt but declares, not for the first time, that the introduction of Financial Fair Play was done “with a view to helping clubs, not controlling and punishing them.”
“Whether because of the size of their stadiums, economic circumstances or other factors, some clubs will always have more resources than many others. Clubs can compensate for this “natural” inequality by keenly developing other strengths, such as passion, solidarity and teamwork. However, they must not do so by engaging in practices such as accumulating debts, which is another form of cheating, and one that is particularly dangerous since it can threaten a club’s very existence.
“Football is making more money than ever before, and yet clubs have never been in so much debt. That deplorable paradox cannot continue. It is not merely a question of ethics but about the very survival of professional football. UEFA’s job is to defend the interests of football as a whole, which is why we are starting this year by pledging, as always, to do whatever it takes to tackle anything that threatens the good health of our sport.”
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