By Andrew Warshaw
March 17 – A week before he is due to be re-elected unopposed as UEFA president, Michel Platini has sought to play down any suggestion that power is beginning to go to his head after two terms of office.
The Frenchman has been nothing if not outspoken over a range of issues, from supporting the first ever winter World Cup in Qatar to increasing the number of finalists in the European Championship.
Platini’s conduct has been interpreted by some as pulling rank but he insists that all of UEFA’s major decisions during his presidency have been taken after full consultation with his colleagues rather than unilaterally.
UEFA this week published a lengthy on-line interview with Platini in which he answered questions from football figures and fans.
The interview concluded with Platini being asked to identify the biggest misconception the football world has of him.
“People in Europe and the world think I take decisions alone,” he answered. “But you have to understand one thing. I am very, very, very democratic and transparent. I never take a decision alone without the support of the executive committee or of the UEFA Congress.
“I listen to everybody very carefully and always take my decisions according to what is the best thing for football. Don’t think I am despotic.”
Platini has been careful not to personally endorse any one of the three UEFA-backed candidates running against Sepp Blatter for FIFA presidency in May. He stuck by that during the on-line interview, simply re-iterating his view that Blatter has to go. “Let’s see the programmes of the four candidates. But it’s important for football that there is a change in FIFA,” he said.
He also re-iterated why he did not put his own name forward.
“It was not so easy a choice but I decided to stay where I feel well. I didn’t decide not to go to FIFA but to stay in UEFA. That’s a totally different matter. Perhaps it is not my time to go to FIFA. We will see one day if I go or don’t go.”
Platini stressed again his opposition to third-party ownership of players which is rife in South America and certain parts of Europe where clubs routinely share the ownership of a player with outside investors.
The practise is being banned worldwide by FIFA from May and Platini said: “I think we are dealing with a type of slavery that belongs in the past. I have put a lot of pressure on FIFA to stop third-party ownership of players.
“Today it is shameful to see some players with one of their arms belonging to one person, a leg belonging to a pension fund located who knows where and a third person owning his foot.
“So it’s about time the world of football wakes up and that the money coming into football remains in football and doesn’t disappear right or left or I don’t know where.”
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