By Andrew Warshaw
October 23- An unsavoury tit-for-tat spat between the respective leaders of European and African football appears to have been resolved after threatening to get out of hand.
Uefa president Michel Platini reportedly demanded an apology after the Confederation of African Football, led by Issa Hayatou, criticised the Frenchman for interfering in the debate over whether to stage the Africa Cup of Nations because of the Ebola virus.
CAF claimed that Platini had suggested, in a television interview, calling off the tournament, due to be played in Morocco in January, and told him to stay out of their business.
Platini denied making such a comment and fired off a strongly worded letter to Hayatou, his fellow FIFA vice-president, describing the claims as “unwarranted” and “even insulting”.
“At no point did I interfere in any way in the affairs of CAF, and at no point did I call for or support the postponement of the forthcoming Africa Cup of Nations,” the Platini letter said.
“I clearly stressed on three occasions during that interview that it was up to you and the CAF to take the decisions that you considered most appropriate.”
“Given this irrefutable evidence, it is clear that your statement is based on inaccurate information that has been reported to you. I therefore consider your statement to be unfair, unwarranted and even insulting.
“You know my love of Africa, the African people and African football and that is why this CAF statement has upset and hurt me so much.
“I now expect an immediate retraction of the statement in question, as well as a formal apology from the author of that statement. Otherwise, I will react accordingly.”
According to Uefa, CAF has now backtracked and admitted it had based its statement on misinterpreted remarks.
“The misunderstanding has been cleared up,” said European soccer’s governing body. “UEFA welcomes the fact that CAF president Issa Hayatou admitted today in a letter to president Platini that the text of this CAF statement was based on non-verified sources….articles which unfortunately contained distorted reports of what Mr Platini had said.”
Morocco have called for a postponement of the blue riband event of African football set to take place from Jan. 17-Feb. 8, because of fears over the spread of Ebola. That has been ruled out by CAF, who will travel to Rabat on Nov. 4 for talks with Moroccan government officials.
CAF’s original criticism of Platini said he had “found it necessary to question maintaining the scheduled date of the African Nations Cup Morocco 2015.”
“Apart from the three countries heavily affected by the epidemic namely, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, where the World Health Organisation has clearly indicated to CAF on the need to avoid huge gatherings, that measure for now only applies to no other country on the continent.”
“Under the principle of non-interference…CAF has refrained so far from commenting on some issues on the managing of European football or any other continent.”
The CAF statement couldn’t resist having a dig back at Uefa over security issues in Ukraine even though that is a totally unrelated matter to the Ebola crisis.
“Despite the risks involved in armed conflict in Ukraine, a country where a civilian plane was shot down killing nearly 300 people, UEFA did not consider it necessary to exclude Ukrainian clubs from its competitions as a security parameter,” CAF said.
“CAF hereby reaffirms the importance it attaches to respect of its sovereignty and does not intend to let anyone interfere in the management of its affairs.”