November 19 – Former UEFA boss Michel Platini, back in the media spotlight as he plots his future now that his ban from football has expired, has taken a swipe at VAR, which he has always opposed.
Speaking on Italian television, Platini described the video assistant referee system as “a load of crap” and says it is just adding to the game’s problems.
Platini, when he was at UEFA, was always firmly against adding any kind of further scientific aids to goal-line technology.
European football’s governing body has now introduced the use of VAR in the Champions League but the Frenchman told Rai 2 it “would take me half an hour to explain why VAR doesn’t solve” anything. “But unfortunately we will not go back.”
Platini, who had been expected to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president in 2016 but who fell spectacularly from grace a few months earlier, is still considering whether to try and take up a senior role in football administration now that he is free to return to the game. Some rumours suggest he may try to go for the presidency of his federation when the role next becomes free.
He says he no longer has any contact with either Blatter or current FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
“I’m 64 and still have the chance for one last adventure. But I but I have no room for error so I have to think about it.”
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