Michel Platini, cleared by the Swiss justice of the accusations of fraud which pursued him for six years, repeated Monday that he would not seek any position at the French Football Federation (FFF), after the resignation of Noël Le Graët from his position as president of the institution. “I made a statement in July when I was cleared of my affairs in Switzerland, I said that I would no longer return to football institutions. That’s it, period!”, Declared the former UEFA boss Monday on RMC.
“I will not return to the institutions of football. It seems to me that the French Federation is part of the football authorities, so I will not return to football or to the French Federation…”, he hammered, by way of of focus. Asked what he would do if he was offered a job, Platini replied: “But no one will come to get me (…) Power, it can be taken or it can’t be taken and I have no desire to take it. I have given enough, I was vice-president of the French Federation 30 years ago, I have done everything, that’s fine, that’s enough, that’s good.”
“Other things to do in football”
However, the triple Ballon d’Or, now 67, does not slam the door to the world of football: “My story may not be over, there may be other things to do in football. I said, the last time, that if there was an opportunity, something that I would like, I would do it but not today.”
Asked about the current crisis of the FFF, which led to the resignation of President Noël Le Graët, Platini put it into perspective: “The structures of French football are good, French football is not bad, we have been world champions in 1998, World Cup finalists (…) There is no crisis, it is the crisis of a president, not the crisis of French football”, he estimated.