Uefa’s Platini admits payment without contract
“I stopped working for him in 2002, at the time when I became a member of FIFA’s executive committee”, Platini said.
“It was a contract I had with Platini, a gentleman’s agreement“, said the 79-year-old in an interview with Swiss media RROTV.
Platini submitted his Federation Internationale de Football Association election application papers before being suspended and hopes that his provisional suspension will be lifted – by the Federation Internationale de Football Association appeal committee or Court of Arbitration for Sport – to allow him to run.
Fifa’s ethics committee is looking into the circumstances of a payment of 2m Swiss francs Platini received in 2011 for work said to have been carried out more than nine years previously.
“I don’t think I have lost many votes with these scandals”, he added.
UEFA president Michel Platini finds it “shameful to be dragged through the mud” and insists he is the only man to lead the reform of FIFA, despite his 90-day suspension from all football-related activity.
“The story may seem surprising, but that is that”, Platini said.
He said Blatter agreed to pay a million Swiss francs per year (around $770,000 at the time). After a while, I go see Blatter: ‘You have a problem paying me?’ He says: ‘Yes, I can’t pay you 1 million because of the wage structure.
The two were suspended for 90-days after the Swiss launched a criminal investigation into a £1.35 million payment Blatter allegedly made to Platini.
Platini told Le Monde that Blatter “wants to kill him politically”, however he still bears “a little affection” for him.
“I admired his policy”, the 60-year-old three-time Ballon d’Or victor said.
“‘How much to you want?’ Blatter asks”, Platini told Le Monde.
Platini said he confronted Blatter when he had not been paid for several months. You can’t have more than three times his salary. So Blatter said they would give Platini a 300,000-franc contract and would pay the balance later, the Frenchman said.
Michel Platini on Monday admitted receiving remuneration from football’s world governing body Fifa but adding further twist in the tale said that no written contract was made.
“I didn’t ask [for the money he was owed] because I didn’t lack it… but I would have been better asking for an acknowledgement of the debt and then none of this would have happened”.
Over four years, such a catch-up payment would have totalled 700,000 francs a year, or 2.8 million Swiss francs. “I was paid 10 days later without any difficulty, and I paid all the charges and taxes on this sum, quite normally”. “If there had been any doubt whatsoever, they would have refused to pay me”. He has a lot of charm, and I can say I was a little bewitched.