The Football Association will continue to back Michel Platini in his bid to lead Fifa despite the embattled Uefa president’s failure to explain adequately a £1.3m payment from Sepp Blatter, though the English game’s governing body is calling for greater clarity.
Greg Dyke, the FA chairman, has been under fire for coming out in July to support Platini’s bid for the presidency, before he had published a manifesto or spoken in public about his goals. Yet following a meeting at Wembley on Wednesday, the entire FA board agreed to continue backing Platini’s candidature.
A statement read: “In July, the FA board decided unanimously to support Michel Platini if he intended to stand for the presidency of Fifa. We did so because we thought he was an excellent president of Uefa and could bring those same leadership qualities to Fifa. We are still of that view.
“However, events of recent days have raised a number of issues which do need to be fully examined. We are following the ongoing investigation initiated by the Swiss attorney general with which Mr Platini is cooperating in full. We also recognise that Mr Platini has contacted the Fifa ethics committee inviting them to look into the matter and to interview him.”
The FA emphasised that overarching Fifa reform in the wake of the all-consuming corruption crisis that has gripped it was the most important outcome, but failed to ask questions of Platini.
“As we said back in July, the most important matter is the urgent reform of Fifa. We believe the whole structure of Fifa needs to be fundamentally changed and we are committed to our efforts to ensure this happens,” it said.
The decision to back the Uefa president has become a potential embarrassment after Platini was questioned by the Swiss attorney general’s office “as a person asked to provide information” – in Swiss law somewhere between a witness and a defendant – in connection with the payment from Blatter.
It was described by Swiss authorities as a “disloyal” payment – one against the interests of Blatter’s employer – and was made nine years after Platini was employed to work as a special adviser to the president between 1999 and 2002.
Some have linked the FA’s backing for Platini to his alignment with the FA on quotas for homegrown players, over which Dyke has been engaged in a running battle with the Premier League. But FA insiders insist that was a side-issue in its considerations and that more important was to be seen to be supporting a candidate who it believed would reform Fifa from within.
Yet Dyke himself made the link when the FA’s support for Platini was announced on its own website. “We have a good relationship with him and hope he can gain the necessary global backing to lead a new Fifa during the most difficult period in its history,” he said. “We continue to have discussions with him on our concerns about dwindling opportunities for homegrown players – a concern he shares. We are pleased Mr Platini has decided to stand as a candidate and we look forward to supporting him.”
The decision to back Platini so early is believed to have been led by Dyke and David Gill, the FA director who also sits on the Fifa and Uefa executive boards, with others around the FA boardroom table less keen on such an early public show of support.
The Uefa president, once considered the overwhelming favourite to succeed Blatter after he was forced to step down amid an avalanche of corruption claims, has protested that he has done nothing wrong. In an interview given to the French press agency AFP on Tuesday night Platini, who is also under investigation by Fifa’s ethics committee, said he felt “calm and serene” and still planned to stand for the Fifa presidency.
He insisted the payment, an outstanding amount on top of some money he had already received during the contracted period, was above board and had been declared to all the relevant authorities.
But he has still failed to satisfactorily explain why he only billed for the payment in February 2011, two months after Qatar had won the right to host the 2022 World Cup and two months before Blatter would be re-elected unopposed.
At the time the payment was made, Blatter still faced the possibility of a challenge from Mohamed bin Hammam, the Qatari Fifa vice-president who was forced to withdraw from the race amid bribery allegations and later banned for life.
This month, the FA’s chief executive, Martin Glenn, further backed Platini after the two-time world footballer of the year had been welcomed to Wembley for England’s Euro 2016 qualifier against Switzerland. “There’s immense value to support the Uefa candidate. We had dinner with Michel the other night, we kind of know what his agenda is anyway,” he said.
“We think it would place English soccer well to have a guy like Michel running Fifa. We think he has huge experience in football, he talks about it in a way that makes sense and there is a reform process going on which will make sure Fifa is a very different beast.”
Platini has been criticised for his links to Blatter, helping the Swiss get elected for the first time 1998 and remaining close to him until they fell out over the 79-year-old’s refusal to step down in 2015. But Glenn insisted this month that he should not be criticised for his past. “Platini won’t be the first person who has been on the road to power and has changed his policies when he gets there.”
The FA backed Prince Ali in May’s election, which was won by Blatter despite police arresting seven Fifa officials in dawn raids just days before the election. Blatter then promised to stand down in February in light of the ongoing US and Swiss twin-track criminal investigations.
Platini and Uefa also supported Ali, but the Jordanian has since criticised his one-time backer. “I conceded that election. Not because I was not the best candidate, but because others were using me to make room for themselves. They didn’t have the guts to run, but I did,” he said.
Chung Mong-joon, another former Fifa vice-president who wants to succeed Blatter in February’s election, has called Platini “the son of Blatter”.
