October 5 – Under-fire UEFA president Michel Platini has taken his innocence stance over a 2 million franc payment he received from president Sepp Blatter all the way to government level in his home country France.
Platini has been questioned by Swiss investigators over the alleged ‘disloyal payment’ authorised by FIFA president Sepp Blatter in February 2011.
Platini claims it was for work carried out for FIFA nine years earlier and that it was totally above board. But with his bid for the FIFA presidency under threat, he has now taken it upon himself to let the French government know he has done nothing wrong.
“He has the feeling he is clean and he wanted to say it to me again,” Secretary of State Thierry Braillard told French sports daily L’Equipe. “He explained everything. I fully trust his honesty and his determination to become FIFA president.”
French Sports minister Patrick Kanner also gave his support to Platini. “We have not changed our minds on the support we give him. If there was any problem, I do not doubt for a minute that he would have refused to run for FIFA president,” he told L’Equipe.
“His message to us was ‘continue to trust me’. That’s what he wanted to tell us.”
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