By Andrew Warshaw
January 22 – European football will have no leader for the foreseeable future after UEFA today ruled out electing a successor to Michel Platini until the case against its banned president is resolved one way or the other.
Platini has already pulled out of the FIFA presidential campaign to concentrate on trying to clear his name and now it seems UEFA could well be in the embarrassing position of having no figurehead to present the trophy at next summer’s European Championship finals in Platini’s native France.
Platini has to go through a potentially lengthy appeals process – first with the FIFA appeals committee and then, quite possibly, the Court of Arbitration for Sport – if he is to resurrect his career and overturn his eight-year ban. If he fails to do so, UEFA will then have to allow potential successors at least two months to campaign to take over from him.
A statement from the European governing body following a two-day executive committee meeting said Platini had the right to exhaust all appeal possibilities and that there would therefore be “no UEFA presidential election scheduled until the sports justice appeal bodies, including potentially the Court of Arbitration for Sport, have taken a decision regarding Michel Platini’s suspension. We hope his name is cleared and that he can return to the European football family as quickly as possible.”
That almost certainly rules out UEFA’s Congress at the beginning of May turning into an election to replace Platini – the original hope when an earlier date of March was scrapped.
Such are the imponderables concerning Platini’s future that it is almost impossible for UEFA, for all their want of trying, to come up with a cogent strategy. To add even more confusion to an increasingly muddled picture, UEFA will have to appoint a new general secretary to replace Infantino if he wins the FIFA presidency on February 26.
Infantino said as much at a news conference following the exco by confirming he would have to step down if he is victorious. That would leave European football’s governing body in the unprecedented situation of being without its two most senior administrators.
Infantino was nevertheless in bullish form after receiving the exco’s unanimous support for his bid to replace Sepp Blatter, announcing he would present himself in front of the world’s media in London on February 1 to give more details of his manifesto that was published this week. “We are certain he is the right man to take FIFA forward,” said an exco statement.
“I’m very honoured and grateful about the support I have received,” Infantino responded. “I’m very confident from what I’ve heard in the last few weeks and months. You will see that in the coming days, everyone (in Europe) will come out in support of me. (But) it’s important to make the point that I’m not just the European candidate. I see myself as the candidate for football who knows what to do.”
Whether the whole of Europe lines up behind Infantino remains to be seen, however. Despite UEFA announcing that as well as being endorsed by its top brass he had the “overwhelming” backing of the individual federations, Insideworldfootball understands that many associations were reluctant to flatly endorse Infantino as a bloc when they met on the sidelines of today’s exco meeting, preferring to hedge their bets until they had digested the respective manifestos of all five candidates.
As anticipated, the exco also approved the use of goal-line technology for next summer’s Euros as well as for the 2016-17 Champions League from the playoffs onwards, a major breakthrough for a confederation that has previously only endorsed Platini’s preferred system of two additional assistants.
Platini only reluctantly embraced goal-line technology following its successful introduction at the 2014 World Cup and by several major European leagues. This week, UEFA’s referring guru Pierluigi Collina gave his personal backing to GLT whilst at the same time supporting the continued use of extra assistants.
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