Platini in custody in 2022 World Cup probe
PARIS — Former UEFA president Michel Platini denied wrongdoing during police questioning Tuesday following his arrest as part of a corruption probe into the vote that gave soccer’s 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
Confirming a report by online news publication Mediapart, a judicial official told The Associated Press that Platini was placed in custody when he was summoned at the anti-corruption office of the Judicial Police outside Paris. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.
Platini, a former France soccer great, can either be released or formally charged after questioning ends.
Platini’s communications team said he was also quizzed on the awarding of the 2016 European Championship to France, adding that he was “absolutely confident in the future” and has “strictly nothing to reproach himself with.”
“Michel Platini expresses himself serenely and precisely, answering all the questions, including those on the conditions for the awarding of the 2016 Euro, and has provided useful explanations,” the statement said.
Also detained Tuesday was Sophie Dion, a former sports adviser of Nicolas Sarkozy when he was French president, the judicial official said. Claude Guéant, the former secretary general of the Élysée under Sarkozy, was heard as a witness and not detained.
Platini’s lawyer, William Bourdon, said the former Juventus playmaker was also questioned as a witness and placed in custody only for “technical reasons.”
French financial prosecutors have been investigating the bidding process for the 2018 and ’22 World Cups and previously questioned former FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
France’s financial prosecutor services opened the investigation on grounds of private corruption, criminal association, influence peddling and benefiting from influence peddling relating to the ’18 and ’22 World Cups, which were awarded to Russia and Qatar, respectively.
FIFA said it is aware of Platini’s situation but declined to comment further on his case.
Platini’s lawyer and adviser did not immediately answer messages from the Associated Press seeking comments.
Much intrigue has centred on Platini’s decision to vote for Qatar.
Blatter, who was FIFA president at the time of the vote in
2010, blamed Platini for backing out of a secret “gentleman’s agreement” to award the ’22 tournament to the United States.
Platini told The Associated Press in ’15 that he “might have told” American officials that he would vote for the United States bid. However, he changed his mind after a November 2010 meeting, hosted by then-President Nicolas Sarkozy at his official residence in Paris and Qatar’s crown prince, now Emir, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
Platini has long insisted that the meeting did not influence his vote for Qatar less than two weeks later.
“Sarkozy never asked me to vote for Qatar, but I knew what would be good,” he said in 2015.
But Blatter claimed in a ’15 interview with the Financial Times that Platini told him ahead of the World Cup vote: “I am no longer in your picture because I have been told by the head of state that we should consider the situation of France.”
Qatar’s methods to bring the World Cup to the Middle East for the first time have been subject to investigations by FIFA.