The FIFA investigation took a new turn on Wednesday, as UEFA president Michel Platini claimed the financial transaction between him and the FIFA president Sepp Blatter was of a contracted work during his time as consultant for FIFA. Platini’s response to his A?1.3million payment from FIFA came four days after he was interviewed by officials from the Swiss attorney general’s office. .
Michel Platini has been regarded as “in between a witness and accused person” by the Swiss attorney general, but that has yet to deter him from standing in the upcoming FIFA elections.
Platini, along with Blatter is also being investigated by the FIFA ethics committee, clarified “Mr Blatter informed me when I started my role as his advisor (in 1999) that it was not initially possible to pay the totality of my salary because of FIFA’s financial situation at that time.
“I never doubted, however, that the remaining amount owed to me would be paid eventually, so I did not actively pursue it.
“I even put the matter to the side for a while, before finally requesting that the outstanding balance was paid in 2011.”
However according to the Mirror, FIFA estimated a loss of nearly A?100 million for the 1999-2002 cycle after its TV and marketing partners went bankrupt, but the federation actually ended up with a profit of some A?84 million. Sepp Blatter then went on to hail the organisation as “financially more stable than ever” in April 2003.
In February 2011, when the financial had taken place Platini had just returned after AFC head Mohamed bin Hammam wherein Platini was requested to stand against Blatter. The timing of the payment and the chain of events that includes UEFA giving its backing to Blatter two months later strikes odd.
Platini said “The outstanding amount for the work I did was paid when I finally requested it to FIFA.
“The fact that this payment was made a few months before the FIFA presidential elections is irrelevant since I never had any plans of becoming a candidate.
“As a matter of fact, I was extremely happy to be re-elected as UEFA President at the UEFA congress in Paris in March of 2011.”