Michel Platini’s dream of becoming the next FIFA president is over.
Platini told that he remains determined to overturn the eight-year ban he was handed by FIFA’s ethics committee last month, but that the deadline for the Feb. 26 election is too short and renders his candidacy impossible.
“I’m withdrawing from the race for FIFA presidency,” Platini, the suspended president of European football’s governing body UEFA, told on Thursday. “The timing is not good for me. I don’t have the means to fight on equal terms with the other candidates. I have not been given the chance to play the game. Bye, bye FIFA. Bye, bye FIFA presidency.”
Platini’s bid to succeed Sepp Blatter in soccer’s top job was put on hold because of a payment he received from his former mentor back in 2011. Blatter and Platini were last month banned for eight years for conflict of interest in the 2 million Swiss franc ($1.35 million) payment deal that is also the subject of a criminal investigation in Switzerland.
Platini hopes to clear his name at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The 60-year-old Frenchman was not authorized to bypass FIFA’s appeal procedure, which states that he will only be able to turn to CAS once FIFA’s appeal committee has ruled on the case.
“I’ve spent more time in hearing rooms than on football pitches speaking about 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 or football news,” said Platini. “I’m taking this philosophically, let’s wait and see what happens. But injustice is revolting me and I’m trying to fight it.”
Platini and Blatter were cleared of corruption charges in December but suspended for a series of breaches including conflict of interest. But Platini, who worked at FIFA as Blatter’s special adviser from 1998 to 2002, said he has no regret over the payment.
“I can’t have any regret in that story because things fell upon my head while I haven’t done anything wrong,” Platini said during an interview in a Nyon hotel. “I’m struggling to understand what happened, unless there was a will somewhere to prevent me from bidding.”
Platini’s fall from grace has been quick and unexpected. Just four months ago, he was considered the favorite in the race for the FIFA presidency. But his campaign derailed after he was questioned on Sept. 25 in a Swiss federal investigation of suspected criminal mismanagement at FIFA.
Platini’s withdrawal from the presidential race marks the end of his steady rise to the summit of football politics.
Football laws overhauled
lONDON: Sending players off for pre-match fights. Permitting the ball to go in any direction at kickoff. Allowing more players to be treated on the field. Stopping teams benefiting from players being punished.
These are just a few of the innovations contained in re-written laws of the game, overhauled by football’s rule-makers in an attempt to remove inconsistencies and make them more user-friendly.
A 22,000-word document has been halved to 12,000 words over the last 18 months. The new laws were approved by the International Football Association Board in london this week, will be ratified at the body’s March meeting, and will be in force for the European Championship in June.
David Elleray, who formulated the comprehensive revision of the laws, hopes rules will no longer be open to as much interpretation. “We are trying to help situations which tend to occur very often and are a bit crazy,” said Elleray, a former English Premier league referee.
“We have tried to use much clearer language. We tried to avoid a lot of unnecessary repetition and we tried to make it up-to-date. Because the laws have evolved piecemeal and no one has done a comprehensive review there have been inconsistencies.”