By Andrew Warshaw
September 18 – UEFA expressed its disappointment and sadness today at the “very serious” latest allegations to strike at the heart of an increasingly discredited FIFA, saying the shock suspension of FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke continued to tarnish the organisation’s image.
With its president Michel Platini deciding to skip yet another post-executive committee press conference to avoid being grilled over his bid to succeed Sepp Blatter, it was left once again to Platini’s number two, Gianni Infantino, to address reporters.
With little news of interest to come out of the exco in Malta, Infantino as expected was questioned over UEFA’s stance about the latest explosive claims to hit its global counterpart.
“We’ve heard what happened and of course they are very serious allegations,” said Infantino. “We feel very sad and disappointed at all this news which is tarnishing the image of football and FIFA. But there is a process that will lead to elections of a new FIFA president and reforms that are certainly necessary. Something needs to be done and will be done to restore FIFA’s image. “
Infantino refused to get drawn into Platini’s approach ahead of the election of February 26. The Frenchman has been accused of targeting confederation heads rather than national associations and Infantino said: “He is not only a candidate for Europe but the world and has received considerable public backing.”
During the press conference it emerged, however, that Malta, which backed Prince Ali bin al-Hussein last time, would be doing so again, thereby snubbing its own confederation. Infantino sidestepped the issue by saying: “There is time. We have an excellent relationship with Malta but there are 208 other federations.”
Separately, Infantino revealed that Kosovo’s request to become a member of UEFA will be submitted to next year’s UEFA congress while he also expressed disappointment about players’ union FIFpro launching an official complaint over the current transfer system to the European Commission. “We’ve always taken the view that if there are issues, we should try to find solutions all together,” said Infantino. “We hope solutions can be found outside the courts.”
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