Michel Platini says he was the victim of a political plot that stopped him from becoming president of FIFA.
Platini, a former Ballon d’Or winner and ex-president of UEFA, was banned from football in 2015 over a delayed payment he received from Sepp Blatter. Both men were later acquitted twice by Swiss courts, clearing Platini of all wrongdoing.
Despite being legally cleared, Platini believes the damage was deliberate. He says powerful figures within football did not want him as FIFA president because they feared he would change the system. “A group of people decided to kill me,” he said, describing the ban as political rather than legal.
Platini does not blame Gianni Infantino, who eventually became FIFA president, saying Infantino merely benefited from the situation.
However, he is critical of Infantino’s leadership, accusing him of favoring powerful elites and running FIFA in a more autocratic way than even Blatter.
On UEFA’s current president Aleksander Ceferin, Platini is cautious but believes UEFA should do more to challenge FIFA and protect football’s values.
Now 70, Platini says he has no desire to return to football administration. Instead, he wants to work quietly in the background, possibly advising others. He remains determined to defend his name and has filed a defamation case against unnamed officials.
Despite losing a decade of his career, Platini says he has no regrets. “I didn’t lose anything,” he says. “But I will always fight injustice so this doesn’t happen to someone else.”
