By Paul Nicholson
August 17 – The war between Nyon and Zurich escalated at the weekend with UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino writing to FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke complaining of a smear campaign against UEFA president Michel Platini and asking FIFA to investigate a letter that was circulated to Swiss and German newspapers.
The 1,400-word document originated from FIFA House, with one FIFA staffer having acknowledged being co-author.
Infantino said his letter has been sent to FIFA ethics committee prosecutor Cornel Borbely and FIFA audit panel chairman Domenico Scala. Scala is overseeing the election process for FIFA president on February 26.
At the centre of the document are allegations that Platini’s links to Qatar would not make him an appropriate president of FIFA
Platini has made no secret of the fact that he voted for Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup or that he met with French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Qatar’s Emir in Paris prior to the vote.
There are also questions raised over Platini’s son, Laurent, who started working for Qatar Sports Investments, an arm of the Qatari government and owners of Paris Saint-Germain, in November 2011. He is currently CEO of Burrda Sport, a Geneva-based sportswear manufacturer with ties to Qatar.
Laurent Platini has denied there is any link between his employment and his father’s connections.
This is by no means the first time the links have been questioned publicly and in the current atmosphere of distrust, paranoia and Ethics committee (and other) investigations, nervousness has reached almost panic levels.
FIFA’s former head of the technical inspection team that evaluated the 2018 and 2022 bids, Harold Mayne Nicholls, was banned from football for seven years, apparently for requesting unpaid internships for some of his family members at Qatar’s Aspire academy.
If it were proved that Platini had a hand in his son’s appointment how long a ban could he expect? But this is a grey area and there can be little doubt that Laurent Platini has the credentials and contacts for the Burrda position, whether his father is Michel or not.
The document states that Platini “was one of Europe’s most skilful players of all time. But is he great enough to be FIFA President? Anyone taking one look in the direction of Qatar can have only one answer: No.”
In what was another bizarre revelation at the weekend, FIFA president Sepp Blatter, told Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant that he was sent a warningfrom Platini, via his brother, that he would go to jail if he did not withdraw from May’s FIFA presidential race.
Blatter said the exchange happened before the elections but his brother only told him about it afterwards.
“During lunch, Platini had sat down at my brother’s table and said: ‘Tell Sepp to withdraw from the election or he will go to prison’,” said Blatter.
A UEFA source told AFP: “This complete fabrication is the latest in a series of attempts from Zurich to distract everyone from the problems FIFA is confronted with.
“The UEFA president will not dignify these ridiculous allegations with a response.”
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