Complaining that he is being "dragged through the mud" in the FIFA corruption investigation, Michel Platini believes he is "bullet proof" and has not lost support in his bid to replace Sepp Blatter as the head of world football's governing body.
The UEFA president, who has been suspended for 90 days along with Blatter, confirmed in an interview published on Monday in the French daily le Monde that he had no written contract for the $2 million payment he received from FIFA in 2011.
Risking further FIFA ethics sanctions by breaking confidentiality rules, Platini gave a detailed defense in the case that threatens to end his presidential hopes.
The extra pay for his job advising Blatter from 1998-2002 was "a thing between two men," Platini said, giving a new version of why FIFA could not pay him in full more than a decade ago.
"I think it's shameful to be dragged through the mud," he said, insisting the case was not a scandal.
Platini submitted his FIFA election application papers before being suspended and hopes that his provisional suspension will be lifted — by the FIFA appeal committee or Court of Arbitration for Sport — to allow him to run. Platini must still pass an integrity check by FIFA's election committee, which will scrutinize all applicants after the deadline closes next Monday.
"I don't think I've lost many votes and those who know me know I can look myself in the mirror," Platini told le Monde. "I'm bullet-proof."
On Friday, Blatter told a Swiss broadcaster the payment deal being investigated by Swiss prosecutors as a "disloyal payment" from FIFA funds was a "gentlemen's agreement." Platini and Blatter are appealing against the suspensions imposed this month by the FIFA ethics committee while it investigates the case.
The ethics panel has in recent cases imposed strict bans when football officials discussed their cases in the media.
"What annoys me most is to have been lumped in with the others," said Platini, who joins a long list of past and current colleagues on the FIFA executive committee who have been implicated in corruption allegations.
Platini told le Monde that Blatter, newly elected as FIFA's president in 1998, asked him to name his salary to work as a personal adviser.
"'How much to you wantIJ' Blatter asks," Platini told le Monde. "I reply: 'One million.' 'Of whatIJ' 'Whatever you want, rubles, pounds, dollars.' There was still no euro then. He replies, 'Agreed. One million Swiss francs per year.'"
The former France great has previously said FIFA did not pay him in full at the time because of the governing body's financial problems.
Platini told le Monde that Blatter suggested that FIFA's salary policy prevented him from having a contract that paid the Frenchman more than then secretary general Michel Zen-Ruffinen.
"I worked for several months without pay," Platini said. "After a while, I go see Blatter: 'You have a problem paying meIJ' He says: 'Yes, I can't pay you 1 million because of the wage structure. You must understand that the secretary general gets 300,000 Swiss francs. You can't get more than three times his salary. So we'll write you a contract for 300,000 Swiss francs and pay the rest later.' And that's what happened. Only later never arrived."
Platini said he invoiced FIFA for 2 million Swiss francs in 2011 because he mistakenly recalled that he had been paid 500,000 Swiss francs annually at the time, and not 300,000. FIFA paid Platini in February 2011, weeks ahead of a presidential contest between Blatter and Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar, who both sought Platini's endorsement.
‘There were no slush funds'
FRANKFURT, Germany: The German football federation president denied again Monday that German bidders used a slush fund to buy votes to secure the 2006 World Cup, while acknowledging that it remains unexplained what the money was used for.
German weekly Der Spiegel reported on Friday that a slush fund of 10.3 million Swiss francs (about $6 million at that time) was set up to buy the votes of four Asian representatives on the FIFA executive committee.
"There were no slush funds," German federation president Wolfgang Niersbach said on Monday. "There was no vote-buying."
"But the question must be asked why was this transfer made," Niersbach added.
Meanwhile, German prosecutors are examining whether there are grounds to open an investigation into the allegations.
Nadja Niesen, a spokeswoman for Frankfurt prosecutors, said fraud, breach of trust or corruption were possible offenses that might be investigated, news agency dpa reported on Monday. Niesen couldn't say when the examination of whether there is a case will be concluded.
Bid committee leader Franz Beckenbauer says he never had money given to anyone to buy votes.
Niersbach, who was also a senior member of the German bid committee, said that Germany ran an honest bid.
"We conducted the bid with honest means, and ultimately decided (the contest) with honest means for us, for Germany, for German football on July 6, 2000 in Zurich," Niersbach said at an event at the German Football Museum in Dortmund.
A federation panel is investigating the case, as well as an "internationally respected" law firm, but Niersbach could not say how long the probe would last.
"We would all prefer that it would be concluded as quickly as possible," he said.
"But the main allegation ... the slush fund, we deny categorically. It's wrong," Niersbach said.
German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, who is also responsible for sports, said he was counting on the DFB leadership to clear up what happened quickly.
"They have questions of their own regarding this sum, what it was used for," de Maiziere told N24 television. "But I have no grounds based on facts to doubt what Mr. Niersbach, Mr. Beckenbauer and others are saying."
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said he was expecting "a comprehensive and swift explanation of the facts."
Bach, who was on the supervisory board of the 2006 World Cup organizing committee, said in a statement the board had "no indications at all of any irregularities of this kind" at the time.
Germany's interior minister at the time, Otto Schily, said it was FIFA, the embattled world governing body of football, which should explain what happened to the money.