What We're Reading
Reelected to head UEFA, Platini turns focus to FIFA
- AP, Thursday, March 24, 2011 6:57 PM
Having been unanimously reelected as UEFA president Tuesday, former French international Michel Platini is being courted for the votes he might deliver in the FIFA presidential
election June 1. Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed bin Hammam, a possible challenger to incumbent FIFA president Sepp Blatter, is lobbying Platini to
support him, though Platini has said he'll meet with both bin Hammam and Blatter prior to the election.
"I am in the middle of all the problems,” Platini told the Associated Press
after Europe’s 53 soccer nations unanimously re-elected him president for four more years. “[Problems] with the clubs, the leagues, the players, FIFA, all the confederations, bin Hammam,
Blatter. Like when I played football, I was on the middle of the field, it was the same."
Blatter has stated if he elected the next four-year term would be his last, but bribery scandals
that tainted the last round of World Cup venue decisions have triggered widespread skepticism of his leadership and the clandestine workings of FIFA.
