By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
August 27 – Will he or won’t he? After months of speculation amid an intriguing and inconclusive game of cat and mouse, UEFA boss Michel Platini is expected to reveal on Thursday whether he has decided to risk taking on Sepp Blatter next year for the top job in world football.
In all likelihood, at what is expected to be a packed news conference in Monaco a few hours before the Champions League draw, Platini will say he has finally opted not to run against Blatter for the presidency of FIFA.
Platini has chosen one of the most eagerly awaited occasions of the European football calendar to show his hand and just before addressing the media, he will call a meeting of all 54 UEFA member federation presidents at the Meridien Hotel to inform them of his decision.
Even though he has stated that he is the only person who could beat Blatter, the key word is could. He knows that whoever takes on the present incumbent faces almost certain failure. That’s why he seems far more likely to bid for re-election in his own organisation, the deadline for which is a few weeks before Fifa’s. Theoretically, just as Lennart Johansson did back in the 1990s, he could remain as UEFA president and then stand down were he to land the leadership of the higher body but that seems unlikely.
Thursday’s announcement comes barely two months after that infamous Platini-condoned rebellion by UEFA’s big-hitters who took a united stand by telling Blatter in no uncertain terms, just before the FIFA congress in Brazil, that it was time to step down rather than go for a fifth term of office.
The Europeans were indignant at Blatter’s change of heart after the veteran Swiss initially indicated in 2011 that his current term would be his last but then decided he wanted to carry on leading the organisation while it cleaned up its act following several unsavoury scandals.
As one European member after another publicly denounced Blatter in what was an almost Shakespearean-like exercise in back-stabbing, interestingly none of them said categorically that Platini would be the man to take over. But if not Platini, then who?
High-ranking UEFA sources have told Insideworldfootball that no other candidate has yet officially decided to put his name forward but that doesn’t mean the situation won’t change between now and the end-of-January deadline for contenders for Blatter’s throne. It may well be, just to keep Blatter guessing, that someone may take him on at the last minute.
So far only one man has declared himself as a challenger – Frenchman Jerome Champagne, the former FIFA general secretary who has stacks of worthwhile (and worthy) ideas but is unlikely to stay the course.
Which begs the question, will Blatter end up standing alone for the second straight time? That, of course, would be anathema to the Europeans but not to the other five confederations who would need some persuasion to vote for anyone else next May. At every single individual confederation congress in Sao Paulo, there was an outpouring of support for Blatter even if it may have been influenced by the promise of considerable World Cup bonuses.
Platini, once Blatter’s key ally who stood by him when he was first elected FIFA president in 1998, says the time has come for a change. He says FIFA needs a “breath of fresh air”, accusing Blatter of reneging on a verbal agreement not to stand for another term.
“It’s not as if choosing between UEFA and FIFA is like choosing between hospital and prison,” said Platini a few months ago. “There’s nothing negative about this choice.”
Maybe not but Platini understands that being in the FIFA hotseat carries considerably more pressure than just running Europe. Certainly he could command the support from his 54 members if he wants the top job but where else would he get backing from?.
Not only that. The Frenchman has a lot on his UEFA plate, not least staging Euro 2016 in his own country and delivering the one-off pan-European Euros four years later, his own initiative. “My gut feeling is that I’d be surprised if he goes for it,” a source close to Platini told Insideworldfootball. “I don’t think we’d put someone else up instead, designated as a champion of UEFA if you like. That would be a mistake. But of course if someone else of his own free will decides to stand – from inside or outside UEFA – he would almost certainly get our endorsement.”
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