August 14 – Michel Platini has chosen Friday, August 28, to fully explain his decision to go for the FIFA presidency on February 26 just months after deciding he didn’t want the job.
The UEFA boss will hold a news conference in Monaco, 24 hours after the Champions League draw.
It was originally suggested that Platini, who has maintained his counsel since becoming the first candidate to officially put his name forward to succeed Sepp Blatter, might opt to speak on Wednesday but it is understood he was not keen for anything to overshadow UEFA’s annual jamboree in the Mediterranean principality highlighted by both the Champions League and Europa League draws.
“Now is not my time, not yet,” Platini said in Monaco this time last year when explaining his decision not to stand against Blatter. Instead, Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, who many felt was a UEFA proxy, was sent into the fray in May’s presidential election and lost.
All that changed with Blatter’s decision to step down in the wake of the US Department of Justice unleashing a torrent of bribery and racketeering allegations.
Long seen as the heir apparent to the veteran Swiss, his former mentor and now adversary, Platini faces a number of questions. High among these are what prompted his change of heart (even though everyone knows he didn’t want to take on Blatter); whether he will double up temporarily and stay on at UEFA until its own election to replace him takes place and when that will be; and why he has apparently fallen out so badly with Prince Ali who has criticised Platini’s FIFA candidacy in a number of statements.
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