UEFA to review FIFA relations if Blatter wins
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UEFA President Michel Platini confronted FIFA President Sepp Blatter at an emergency meeting of football chiefs yesterday, calling on him to stand down because of corruption scandals engulfing world football.
Blatter, head of soccer’s international governing body, refused and Platini, head of the sport’s European governing body, made a public appeal at a press conference for member nations around the world to vote against Blatter for the FIFA presidency in an election due to be held today.
“I asked him to resign. Enough is enough, Sepp. He listened to me but he told me it is too late,” Platini told reporters.
“I say these things with tears in my eyes. I don’t like it this way. But there are just too many scandals,” he added.
Other confederation leaders did not back his call, Platini added. UEFA chief said he was “disgusted” and “sickened” by events which led to the arrest of seven FIFA officials at a Zurich hotel on Wednesday.
Blatter is strong favorite to win a fifth term at today’s FIFA congress. But Platini said he believed the Swiss official can be beaten.
“Before the events of this week maybe not,” Platini said.
The UEFA president said a “large majority” of European nations would back challenger Prince Ali bin al Hussein.
He called on members from other confederations to also join a revolt against FIFA and support the prince.
The winner needs a two thirds majority of FIFA’s 209 members for victory in the first round today. If a second round is needed, a straight majority is enough.
Platini said he hoped that 45 or 46 of Europe’s eligible 53 voting nations would vote for the prince.
Those votes might not be enough to topple Blatter but would send a strong signal of disapproval.
Platini suggested UEFA could withdraw from FIFA if huge changes are not brought in to world soccer’s embattled governing body, but also admitted he faces something of a crisis of his own.
David Gill of England, who is joining the FIFA executive committee as the British vice-president, has said that he will not take his seat on the executive if Blatter is re-elected as president today.
Platini said he hoped he could persuade Gill to change his mind over the next few weeks.
Platini said that European nations would meet in Berlin on June 6, on the sidelines of the Champions League final, to review “all their relations with FIFA” if Blatter wins.
“We will raise all possibilities,” Platini said, while refusing to say whether this would include a possible withdrawal from FIFA competitions.
Platini, one of the greatest footballers of all time, said he began his long relationship with Blatter in 1998, by which time he had swapped his France shirt to become the organizer of the 1998 World Cup in France.
“I have affection for Mr Blatter, and he always said he was like an uncle to me. But enough is enough.
“If I cannot tell him it is time to stop then who can? A true friend can tell another friend the reality. I said, I’m asking you to leave, FIFA’s image is terrible. He said that he couldn’t leave all of a sudden.”
Platini added: “I’m saying this with sadness and tears in my eyes, but there have been too many scandals, FIFA doesn’t deserve to be treated this way.”
Platini, who decided last August to stand for re-election as UEFA president and not run for the FIFA presidency, was originally a close ally of Blatter, but was fulsome in his support of Prince Ali,
“Prince Ali has all the legitimacy he needs, he is young, he is ambitious and that is why I support him, he can do some good, he can change things, he doesn’t need money because he is a prince,” Platini said.
“A very large majority of national associations from Europe will vote for Prince Ali, and if they are to be trusted I believe he will get 45 or 46 votes from Europe. I’m trying to convince a couple who are not convinced.”
On Wednesday police officers arrested seven FIFA officials in Zurich on corruption charges while authorities in the United States issued proceedings against 18 others involved in alleged corruption involving FIFA matters.
“I am the first one to be disgusted by this. I have stomach trouble when I think about the FIFA problem,” Platini said.”
“I am a great admirer of FIFA and I’ve followed it for some years, but I don’t know where to put myself. I get the impression that if FIFA is not going to do anything, the FBI will do it for them,” he said.
The Asian and African confederations have backed Blatter and said that today’s election should go ahead as planned.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius disagreed, saying the vote should be delayed in light of the corruption investigation.
British Prime Minister David Cameron backed Prince Ali’s candidacy and said there was a strong case for a change of leadership at FIFA.
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