Michel Platini: “Sepp Blatter had bewitched me” – Le Monde

Read also: Michel Platini:” I find it shameful to be dragged through the mud “

• His subject around the presidency of FIFA

“I feel like it, provides Platini, who judges ” shameful to be dragged through the mud. ” “I just hope that we will not stop me introduce myself. It annoys them that it is a footballer and not a pure policy that wants to lead. But I do not like to lose. Especially for a business that is not a. “

• Negotiations around his salary as an advisor to Blatter

” It was a man to man thing “, says Michel Platini who said that it was in 1998, when Joseph Blatter presented himself to the presidency of FIFA, the latter asked him to be his adviser on football. It details his conversation with Blatter then: “Blatter asks” How many you want? “. I reply “1 million”. “What?”, “From what you want, rubles, books, dollars.” At this time, there is not yet the euro. He replies “okay, one million Swiss francs a year.” “

• Suspicions about the time it takes to ask her salary

Platini makes his work ca 1998 to 2002. But only nine years later, in 2011, he is concerned that his salary does not happen. “Actually, I work several months without touching anything, he explains. After a while, I’ll see Blatter: “You have a problem paying me?”, he said “yes. I can not pay you a million because of the salary. You understand, the general secretary earns 300,000 Swiss francs. You can not have more than three times his salary. So we will give you a contract for 300,000 Swiss francs and the balance will give you later. ” (…) I stopped working for him in 2002, when I entered the executive committee of FIFA. I do not ask because I do not miss. “

It is in 2011 when he claims payment: ” I have asked my services to make contact with the management of FIFA’s finances Blatter asked if he owed me money. And he said yes. I sent an invoice at their request. And there, I was wrong in my detriment. I do not remember that I had been paid 300,000 Swiss francs, I thought it was 500,000 and he owed me a remedial 500,000 four years. So I sent an invoice 2 million. I was paid ten days later without any difficulty FIFA do and I paid my own expenses and taxes on this sum, quite normally. “

• Not enough to accuse Blatter of leakage

Both men are now cold . Nothing to say as long as Blatter is the source of the leak. “I have my doubts,” says Platini ensuring he had for the FIFA president “esteem and friendship. Yes, I admired the policy. It has a lot of charm and I can say that I had somehow bewitched. Even if he wants to kill me politically, I keep a little affection for what we lived together. “

• No regrets over his support for the candidacy Qatar for the World Cup

Platini fully assumes his vote for the award Qatar the 2022 World Cup, while the Swiss justice suspected the emirate of to have paid bribes. “I was the only one who told seamlessly that I voted for Qatar and the only one to tell the lunch at the Elysée with Nicolas Sarkozy and the Emir of Qatar which is m ‘ then charged as if Sarkozy had told me who to vote! he says. My honesty night myself. “