Le Monde | • Updated | By
There are five years to the day, November 23, 2010, Nicolas Sarkozy received lunch at the Elysee Palace on Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Crown Prince of Qatar and current emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Emirate, and Michel Platini, the boss Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).
The former leader of the Blues game has always assured to have been “surprised” by discovering the presence of the Crown Prince of Qatar and his prime minister at that luncheon before the vote on December 2, 2010 for the award of the 2018 World Championships and 2022 respectively in Russia and Qatar.
Michel Platini, who dismissed the idea of receiving former President Bill Clinton, leader of Honour committee Application of the United States, to avoid any conflict of interest, he thought assured Nicolas Sarkozy see face to face. Yet the UEFA boss expected to meet the emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, at the Elysee. Reportedly, Michel Platini has made no secret, at first, he was going to lunch with Mr Sarkozy and Sheikh Hamad, in power until 2013, before changing his version of this appointment after Early reviews.
“There was a sudden reversal after the lunch”
But the lunch was anything but trivial. It is from this point that the support of UEFA boss at the US bid for 2022 would have switched to support the candidacy of Qatar. In any case which will be achieved Suisse Joseph Blatter, head of the International Football Federation (FIFA) since 1998 (in October suspended for ninety days by the ethics committee of the international organization, as Michel Platini).
This luncheon “has completely changed the game,” provides Blatter, who in an interview with Russian news agency TASS, 28 October had made the former head of state and the head of UEFA officials of victory (fourteen votes to eight) in the ballot boxes of Qatar against the United States for organizing the 2022 World Cup.
“Everything was going well until Mr Sarkozy held a meeting with the Crown Prince of Qatar, Emir is today, said Joseph Blatter. And at lunch that followed ith Mr. Platini has said that it would be nice to go to Qatar. There was a vote in secret ballot. Four European votes have finally rejected the US e t the result was fourteen votes against eight. “
This award ballot is also the subject of an investigation by the public prosecutor of the Swiss Confederation (MPC). The Office of the Swiss Attorney General who unearthed “more than 120 suspicious financial transactions .”
Michel Platini, who acknowledged having made his vote at the emirate wealthy, had assured in the columns of The Team in June 2014: “Nobody told me that I should vote for. “” Never Qatar asked me to vote for him. Neither Sarkozy nor anyone, “ had insisted the former coach of El Tri (1988-1992), which recognized, however, have ” felt there was a subliminal message “ of ex-head of state when it was “found with Qataris.”
“There was a sudden change after this lunch. Blatter is far from knowing everything but, in substance, what he says is true: Platini has been important to turn the tide against the United States , “says a source contacted by The World
Read also:. The FIFA Ethics Committee requires sanctions against Blatter and Platini
A deal betrayed with the United States
According to our information, Michel Platini was initially far from being seduced by the Qatar application. In spring 2010, he made a trip to South Korea to meet with Chung Mong-joon, executive committee member of FIFA since 1994 and whose country also postulated the organization of the World in 2022.
But in the summer of 2010, the UEFA president Sunil Gulati had met, president of the US Federation (USSF) in Nyon (Switzerland), to offer him a deal. In exchange for the withdrawal of the US bid for the award of the 2018 World Cup, the Blues game former leader promised to support the USSF’s file for editing in 2022.
In October 2010, Sunil Gulati was therefore formalized the US package for the World Cup 2018 and confirmed their candidature for the 2022 World Cup.
The pact sealed with the President of the USSF has been broken Michel Platini after the luncheon at the Elysee Palace on November 23.
In December 2012, in the gallery of Doha Goals, Global Sports Forum, Nicolas Sarkozy had prided itself on having “ supported the choice “of Qatar. “It was not until the XXI th century to a Muslim country organizes for the first time an event of this importance. This is a big decision, “ he declared.
Meanwhile, Sunil Gulati has never hidden, private, his feeling of being betrayed by Michel Platini. “I will never forgive him” , he had whispered after the vote of 2010. Since then it mature in silence.
Find our investigation in the notebook Sport & amp; shape Monde dated Saturday, November 28
Read also: The judgment of Blatter on Platini: “an honest man”
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