Michel Platini: Former Uefa president ‘absolutely confident’ of innocence and claims he was not arrested, says lawyer
Former Uefa president’s lawyer William Bourdon claims Platini was not arrested but was questioned ‘as a witness in the context desired by the investigators’
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Michel Platini has said that he is “absolutely confident” of being innocent of any allegations of corruption, with the former Uefa president adding that he is co-operating with French prosecutors with their investigation into how Qatar won the 2022 World Cup, according to his lawyer.
Platini was detained by the Anti-Corruption Office of the Juducial Police (OCLCIFF) on Tuesday morning for questioning, but the 63-year-old Frenchman said that he was not arrested and was there as “a witness in the context desired by investigators”, disputing an initial report that appeared in French investigative outlet Mediapart.
He was questioned as part of an investigation into how the hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup were awarded to Qatar nine years ago, and later revealed that the hosting rights for the 2016 European Championship in France are also part of the investigation.
A statement issued by his lawyer, William Bourdon, read: “Michael Platini, after being heard in the same investigation in open court last year, is now questioned under the regime of custody for technical reasons.
“His counsel, Mr William Bourdon, strongly asserts that this is in no way an arrest, but a hearing as a witness in the context desired by the investigators, a framework that prevents all persons heard, then confronted, can not confer outside the procedure.
“Michel Platini expressed himself serenely and precisely, answering all the questions, including those on the conditions for the awarding of Euro 2016, and has provided useful explanations.
“He has nothing to do to with this event which doesn’t concern him at all and is totally foreign to facts that go beyond him.
“He is absolutely confident about what’s next.”
Fifa meanwhile have vowed to give French prosecutors their “full commitment” in co-operating with investigations into alleged corruption within football after responding to requests for comment on Platini.
As well as his position in charge of European football – one that he held from 2007 until his resignation in 2015 after being banned from all football-related activities for four years – Platini was a member of the Fifa executive committee that has faced fierce scrutiny over the decisions to vote for Russia and Qatar to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups respectively.
Issuing a statement in light of Platini’s questioning, Fifa declined to comment on the matter specifically given that the investigation remains open, but did stress that they will help prosecutors in any way they can.
The statement read: “Fifa is aware of today’s press reports concerning Mr Michel Platini. Please understand that since we don’t have all the details about the matter we are not in a position to comment further.
“Generally speaking, Fifa reiterates its full commitment to cooperating with the authorities in any given country of the world where investigations are taking place in connection with football activities.”
The former France international captain was detained by French police on Tuesday morning in Nanterre, a western suburb of Paris, as part of the investigation into corruption surrounding how the 2022 World Cup hosting rights were awarded, according to French investigative outlet Mediapart.
Platini he stepped down as Uefa president in 2015 after being banned from football for six years, which was later reduced to four after appealing the sanction to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, in a scandal that also saw then Fifa president Sepp Blatter resign.
Platini and Blatter were both cleared of corruption charges in 2015, but were found guilty of a series of regulation breaches that included conflict of interest and dereliction of duty when a 2m Swiss francs (£1.35m) “disloyal payment” from Blatter to Platini in 2011 was discovered. Both were handed long bans from all football-related activities.
That ban for Platini expires in October this year, and he has previously signalled his intention to return to football governance in some capacity.
He was on the 1998 Fifa World Cup organising committee, and joined the Fifa executive committee in 2002 until he received his ban.
Qatar was controversially awarded the right to host the 2022 World Cup in 2010, which was announced at the same time as Russia winning the right to stage the 2018 tournament. In 2014, Platini admitted holding a meeting in secret with disgraced former football official Mohamaed Bin Hammam days before casting his vote for Qatar, with the ex-Asian Football Confederation subsequently banned from football for life following an expose by the Sunday Times.
An investigation by The Telegraph into Platini and Bin Hammam’s relationship claimed that the pair met “between 30 and 50 times” while serving on Fifa’s executive committee.
The report also claims that Claude Gueant, who formerly advised ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy as Secretary General, has also been taken in for questioning but has not been arrested.
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