Questions over Platini payment

MICHEL PLATINI’S future as a football administrator is “in real danger” over a peculiar £1.3 million payment the UEFA president accepted from FIFA in 2011, a source close to FIFA’s ethics committee has said.

It is understood that both Platini and FIFA president Sepp Blatter are now under active investigation by the committee, meaning both could be formally suspended from all football duties within days.

Platini insists he did nothing wrong in pocketing the cash, sanctioned by Blatter, saying it was money he was owed for work he did as the president’s special adviser on football matters between 1999 and 2002.

That the money was not paid for another nine years, a few months before Blatter was elected FIFA president for the fourth time, is yet to be fully explained. It has led to serious questions about whether there was a hidden agenda, possibly to buy the support of Platini who by 2011 had become head of UEFA.

A source close to the Frenchman says he emphatically denies that the money was an inducement or reward for not challenging Blatter in the 2011 FIFA presidential race.

But the ethics committee source said: “He is in real danger. It’s a total nightmare for him. Possibly even a bigger disaster than for Blatter because he wants to be the future president”.

Blatter’s controversial 17-year tenure hangs by a thread after criminal proceedings were opened against him by Swiss justice authorities on Friday, with Blatter suspected of “criminal mismanagement” and “misappropriation”.

The Swiss attorney general’s office (OAG) said Blatter is accused of signing a contract with former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner that was “unfavourable for FIFA”.

The deal in question allegedly allowed Warner, also a former president of CONCACAF, to make tens of millions of dollars from a TV rights contract. The OAG say there is a suspicion Blatter “violated his fiduciary duties” in that matter.

The OAG said Blatter is also suspected of the “disloyal payment” of two million Swiss francs (£1.3m) to Platini, made in February 2011.

Platini has been considered the favourite to replace Blatter in a presidential election that is scheduled for February next year. He is not facing charges and spoke to Swiss investigators for four hours on Friday after they raided FIFA House in Zurich where FIFA’s executive committee (ExCo) was meeting.

Platini was questioned only as a witness, and remains confident that he has answered all the necessary questions and made it clear, as a Swiss resident, that he would be happy to co-operate with any further inquiries.

But he has still not given an explanation about the nine-year delay in being paid; and sources say he may yet face an internal FIFA probe into his conduct.

The rationale is that if Blatter is suspected of criminal mismanagement for sanctioning money to Platini, then Platini as a current FIFA vice-president as well as head of UEFA has questions to answer about why he accepted it. – Daily Mail