UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino

NYON: UEFA’s crisis talks called to discuss the plight of its suspended president Michel Platini got underway yesterday in Nyon, Switzerland. The emergency meeting at the headquarters of European football’s ruling body will give Platini a strong indication of the level of support he can count on in his bid to succeed Sepp Blatter as president of FIFA.

The Frenchman was the frontrunner to take control of football’s scandal-tainted governing body until last week’s 90-day suspension ordered by the FIFA ethics committee charged with investigating the corruption scandal engulfing FIFA. Platini is being investigated over a contentious $2 million (1.8 million euros) payment made to him by Blatter in 2011 for consultancy work performed years earlier.

The former France and Juventus star is not allowed to attend the meeting of the body’s 54 member unions. Yesterday’s proceedings began at 0900GMT with a meeting of UEFA’s executive committee as Platini’s place at the head of the table was assumed by vice-president Angel Maria Villar Llona of Spain. Before the talks began a lorry bearing the name of a company called ‘datarec sa’ and advertising it’s services as ‘destruction of confidential documents’ was seen arriving at UEFA’s base before leaving half an hour later.

Shortly before the meeting was due to commence, a succession of limousines were also seen arriving at UEFA’s headquarters. German Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Italy’s Andrea Agnelli, executive board members of the European Club Association, who were invited to attend the meeting as observers, could be made out behind blacked out windows. The executive committee meeting was expected to run until 1200GMT and be followed by a full emergency meeting attended by the presidents and general secretaries of all UEFA’s member federations. UEFA’s secretary general Gianni Infantino is due to hold a press conference on the outcome of the day’s discussions. Top of UEFA’s agenda is “the question of Michel Platini’s suspension and the eventual request to postpone FIFA’s presidential election”, a UEFA source told AFP.

‘Protect UEFA’

German Football Federation boss Wolfgang Niersbach says the crisis talks will help determine whether or not Platini could maintain his candidature to replace Blatter as FIFA’s head in February’s elections with the corruption investigation hanging over his head. He is more concerned that Platini’s situation could drag UEFA into the FIFA corruption scandal. “We have to avoid that at all costs. We must protect UEFA,” he told the Die Zeit newspaper.

The 60-yearold Platini denies any wrongdoing. He describes the charges as “farcical” and is appealing his suspension. Hours before UEFA’s meeting began Prince Ali bin Hussein, Platini’s main rival to succeed Blatter, formally registered his candidacy for next year’s election to run FIFA. The Jordanian royal’s potential opponents include Brazilian legend Zico, Liberia’s Musa Bility and South African Tokyo Sexwale, an anti-apartheid campaigner who once shared a cell with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island.

South Korea’s Chung Mong-joon is already out of the running after being suspended for six years by FIFA’s ethics committee. Without UEFA’s support, Platini would also see his FIFA leadership hopes go up in smoke, although he risks being disqualified by the electoral commission in any case. Over in Zurich, FIFA’s acting president Issa Hayatou turned up at the world body’s headquarters for his first day in his new job. “Mr Hayatou arrived this morning at FIFA’s headquarters,” a spokesperson confirmed.

The 69-year-old Cameroonian’s first major task will be to establish the topics for FIFA’s own crisis meeting scheduled for Tuesday. A Swiss bank, Julius Baer, meanwhile announced it was suing newspaper Handelszeitung over an article implicating it in the corruption scandal. And Swiss prosecutors announced they had authorised the extradition to the United States of Nicaragua’s Julio Rocha, one of seven FIFA officials arrested on corruption charges in Zurich on May 27. — AFP