Former fooball player Michel Platini during the tv show Che tempo che fa, Milan, ITALY-17-11-2019 // AGFEDITORIAL_FLS181119-38 / 1911181019 / Credit: Flavio Lo Scalzo / AGF / SIPA / 1911181022 – Flavio Lo Scalzo / AGF / SIPA
With him, that would never have happened. We expected no less from Michel Platini, invited to give his opinion on the management of the Super League crisis by his successor at the head of UEFA, Alexander Ceferin, in a great interview
at The team. “The departure of the big clubs to found their own competition is the only real recurring danger that UEFA has to manage. The big clubs have been wanting to leave for forty years. When you are president of UEFA, it is therefore better to anticipate rather than find yourself faced with a fait accompli and treat the managers of these clubs as “cowards”, “snakes” or “scorpions” as Ceferin did. , it was ridiculous ”, estimated the former number 10 of the Blues.
“Always more money”
UEFA boss from 2007 to 2015, Platoche explains that he too had to deal with problems of this kind, and that he had been able to discuss with the leaders of the biggest clubs. “We spoke in the interests of football, not just business or television, but also players and supporters. It wasn’t Ceferin arguing with Agnelli… ”he tackles. Understood, it takes a former great player to be credible.
The former leader of Juvenus welcomes the fight of the English supporters and some coaches concerned like Guardiola or Klopp who blocked this project. And take the opportunity to say all the bad things he thinks about the future reform of the Champions League. “It’s stupid without a name: they are going to further lengthen the group stage which is already of no interest to anyone. At UEFA, it has long been the philosophy of some: always more money, ”he denounces.
The same distrust of Gianni Infantino’s idea of playing for the World Cup every two years. “It was already Blatter’s dream (FIFA president from 1998 to 2015). Not mine. Because the World Cup every four years is history. What is rare is precious, he recalls. Contrary to what Fifa and UEFA think, football is not theirs. “
Discarded from all sporting responsibilities, Platini is still targeted today by two judicial inquiries, including one in Switzerland for a suspicious payment of two million Swiss francs by Sepp Blatter. He declared in March that he “did not forbid himself” a return to football when the context is more favorable.