AFP/Zurich
Michel Platini launched a virulent assault on FIFA’s ethics watchdog in a statement read out at the football world body’s tribunal which is deciding whether he is guilty of corruption.
“I am already judged, I am already condemned,” the 60 year-old suspended FIFA vice president and UEFA leader said in the statement which was released yesterday after being read out by his lawyer at Friday’s hearing in Zurich.
The tribunal is to release its verdict tomorrow and FIFA’s ethics investigators have called for Platini to face a life ban. Platini however attacked an “anthology of indiscretions, rumours, confidences leaked to the press by anonymous and malevolent sources from within FIFA that you have done nothing to silence,” in the statement to the judges.
The statement highlighted a media interview given by Domenico Scala, head of FIFA’s audit committee, in October when he gave details of a two million Swiss franc ($2 million/1.8 million euro) payment approved by FIFA president Sepp Blatter to Platini in 2011.
The payment is the cause of the FIFA investigation and Scala highlighted how there was no contract and how the sum did not appear in FIFA accounts.
Blatter and Platini, both serving 90-day suspensions, deny any wrongdoing. But FIFA’s ethics commission has called for a life ban for Platini. Blatter, 79, who appeared before the tribunal on Thursday, also faces a long ban. Platini said the case prepared by FIFA prosecutor Vanessa Allard is “loaded” and declared: “I no longer have any trust in FIFA’s disciplinary bodies.”
Neither Platini nor Blatter have revealed any of the details of their defence used to justify the payments, however. FIFA’s ethics commission would not comment on Platini’s decision to release his statement.
A source close to FIFA’s temporary leadership said “it is not the investigators job to be impartial. But neither is Mr Platini impartial”.
Candidates for FIFA presidency lobby Africa for support
It was Africa versus Europe in Johannesburg yesterday as Tokyo Sexwale and Jerome Champagne lobbied southern Africa’s football bosses for support to become the next head of the scandal-ridden body FIFA.
The South African apartheid-era political prisoner turned multimillionaire and the former French diplomat laid out their plans to reform FIFA to the Confederation of Southern African Football Association’s (COSAFA) annual general meeting.
The two men hoping to succeed suspended FIFA head Sepp Blatter presented a show of solidarity as they recalled working together on South Africa’s successful bid to host the 2010 World Cup tournament.
World football’s governing body is traversing the worst corruption scandal in its over 100-year history and Blatter faces a Swiss criminal investigation. He denies any wrongdoing.
But the show of unity began to show cracks when Sexwale pointed out that FIFA had never had an African president.
“The score is 111 to zero against Africa. For 111 years FIFA has not had an African,” said Sexwale, adding that Europe would have pulled out of FIFA if the situation had been reversed.
“I am not here to keep quiet like a slave and pretend that these things are not happening,” he added, raising the emotional temperature in the small hotel conference room.
Champagne, who served as a FIFA executive for nearly a decade until 2010, responded by saying the choice was more about experience and ability than nationality.
“It’s not matter of origin,” he said. “It’s a matter of knowing exactly of how to manage the structure.”
“Because I was pushed out of FIFA by a coalition of people who are all today suspended, I know exactly what needs to changed. And that is the experience I can provide,” he said with growing passion in his voice.
The air of unity returned toward the end of the news conference, with Sexwale quipping he would name Champagne as his general secretary if the Frenchman promised to do the same.
Prince Ali Hussein of Jordan, another candidate, addressed the COSAFA meeting via video link. He promised to have African leaders in his team if he won the presidency.
Michel Platini
