Platini signs off thanking friends, invoking pride and passing on the fight
By Andrew Warshaw in Athens
September 14 – It lasted less than 10 minutes, was dignified, personal, at times emotional and ended, tellingly, with the words, “Friends of football, farewell.” Michel Platini, out of the public spotlight for the last 11 months, made his eagerly anticipated but highly controversial goodbye appearance in front of his former lieutenants today before disappearing into the Athens sunlight, never to return as president of UEFA as a result of being banned for financial misconduct.