Michel Platini insists “I’m not a corrupt person, I haven’t stolen” as he goes “on the counter-attack”.
The former Juventus midfielder was President of UEFA, and had planned to run for the FIFA Presidency in 2015.
However, he was given an eight year ban by the organisation’s independent ethics committee in 2015, later reduced on appeal.
Michel Platini insists “I’m not a corrupt person, I haven’t stolen” as he goes “on the counter-attack”.
The former Juventus midfielder was President of UEFA, and had planned to run for the FIFA Presidency in 2015.
However, he was given an eight year ban by the organisation’s independent ethics committee in 2015, later reduced on appeal.
“The prosecutor has acknowledged that I didn’t do anything,” Platini claimed in a Gazzetta dello Sport interview, indicating he won’t face criminal charges.
“I’m not a corrupt person, I haven’t stolen, I’m not what those fools on the ethics committee were saying. I feel like someone else. And I’ll go on the counter-attack.
“You’ll see how soon.
“In 2015, a friend told me: ‘watch out, they’re doing something against you’. From that moment it was a nightmare, I went from committee to committee, sure of my innocence, and found myself banned.
“Eight years, then six, then four… And people knew it was fake, everything had already been written. All these FIFA idiocies about me.
“But it was like taking a slap, then another, then another. Hard.
“My family and my true friends know me well and knew there was no problem. The others though thought I was a bandit for a while. But only for a little while.”
It was then pointed out to Platini that if he’d immediately communicated to the UEFA the money he had received from FIFA, the whole incident wouldn’t have happened…
“But I didn’t know I had to do it! I declared the money to the tax authorities, I paid the contributions. It’s not like I wanted to hide it.
“All I know is that I lost four years in commissions, and always explaining the same things to you journalists.
“I won’t give up until it’s recognised that I did nothing ethically wrong, that I’m immaculate. I don’t want to live with this stain. Those on the commissions are idiots, and I denounce them.
“I’ve seen the dark face of football and I didn’t expect it. I went into politics to develop football, to let children play. Not to defend myself.
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do again, in my opinion they were all right. Things got complicated when [Sepp] Blatter, at the Uefa Congress in Paris, said ‘it’s my last election, vote for me’ and then ‘in four years it will be Platini’s turn’.”
UEFA then voted for Blatter, in the same year he paid Platini the aforementioned money…
“But he owed me it,” Platini insisted.
“I said to him: ‘do you remember that you owe me money?’.
“Now? I couldn’t care less about UEFA or FIFA. All I was sorry about was the way people looked at me changed in the first few days.
“That helped me to understand self-criticism. I thought I was important, I did not realise I was living in a small self-referential world.
“The people don’t care about Presidents, they care about Messi, Ronaldo, Ibra; the first whistle, and the final whistle.
“I know that now and I can live like a normal person.
“Will I go to the World Cup? An elegant and courageous FIFA could perhaps do something for me, but… no, TV.”
Platini was also behind the introduction of Financial Fair Play.
“It was useful and it had to be done. I saved football from bankruptcy. You can’t do without it.
“VAR? I’ve always been an enemy of the replays. Now even more than before. I told Blatter: ‘once you start, you don’t know where it will stop’. You stop for everything, you review everything. No linesman will raise a flag.”
The Frenchman also attracted controversy recently when he stated that the 1998 World Cup draw was fixed so Les Bleus couldn’t meet Brazil until the final.
“People understood, it wasn’t fixed. It was normal for those who play at home, it’s always like that. At Italia ’90, Germany asked to stay in Verona for their fans. It’s all nonsense.”
Platini had once promised to hand the Champions League over to Juventus as UEFA President…
“It’ll never happen, because I don’t go back. And they’ve lost so many finals…”