LONDON: They play for high stakes in the casinos of Monte Carlo, but in the latest round of soccer politics UEFA president Michel Platini looks increasingly likely to stay away from the tables, preferring instead to bide his time before showing his hand.
The Frenchman is to make a much-anticipated announcement on Thursday after deciding whether or not to stand against long-term incumbent Sepp Blatter in an election to become president of world soccer’s governing body FIFA.
But as it is clear this is a race he is unlikely to win, every indication now is that the 59-year-old will take the pragmatic option and keep his chips in his pocket.
Senior sources who know Platini well have told Reuters they cannot see him running, even though he was once seen as the natural successor to the current long-term FIFA president.
The main obstacle barring Platini’s way, of course, is Blatter. The 78-year-old Swiss has been president of FIFA since 1998 and has given countless hints this year that he will stand again for a fifth term at the FIFA Congress in Zurich next June.
If Blatter stood, won and saw out his mandate, he would be 83 when the next election is due in 2019, a year older than his predecessor Joao Havelange was when he gave up the post 16 years ago. So far only one man has declared his candidacy: FIFA’s former deputy chief executive Jerome Champagne, who announced in London in January his intention to run but said at the news conference when he launched his bid he did not think he could beat Blatter if Blatter decided to stand for re-election.
Whether Platini will inform Blatter of what he intends to do before his media announcement on Thursday is another matter entirely. The two men, once close, have become estranged over the last few years and on the day the World Cup started in Brazil Platini publicly withdrew his support for Blatter.
Speaking in Sao Paulo he said: “I am supporting him no longer. I have known him for a long time, I like him, but I am not favourable to him having another term.
That is a long way from declaring his own candidacy, though, and while Platini, like Champagne, would like to see change at FIFA, it is hard to see either man gaining a straight majority of votes from FIFA’s 209 member associations when the ballot papers are cast. (Reuters)
