Platini claims he was victim of FIFA and CAS plot

Platini, whose ban will end on 11th October, assured that "somebody" did not want him to become FIFA president and in an interview published this Monday by the "Gazzetta dello Sport", he did not rule out that Gianni Infantino, the current FIFA boss, may have known something before Platini was banned. 

"I have some ideas, I think they all have them (about who were those responsible for the plot to prevent him becoming FIFA president), but as I didn't have any proof, I reported unknown people. But it is somebody inside FIFA and CAS," stated Platini two days before the FIFA congress which will be held in Paris on Wednesday. 

"In my last press conference as UEFA president, in Montecarlo in 2015, somebody had let me off. I cannot say who it is, but it is not somebody from UEFA. I was told that somebody was trying to stop me becoming FIFA president," he added.

Platini, who was UEFA president from 2007 to 2015, is serving a four year ban for violating the FIFA ethics code after accepting a payment in 2011. The payment was authorised by the then FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, and was of close to 1.8 million euros for work carried out between 1998 and 2002. 

"I cannot imagine that after everything I did for Infantino when he was the UEFA general secretary, he had anything against me. But I don't know, I know that afterwards, he did everything he could to prevent me from coming back and shortly after that, he said to me that he was thinking about standing to become FIFA president," he said. 

"I was surprised. For me, he has neither the legitmacy nor the credibility to be FIFA president. That said, he was an excellent general secretary. He wasn't just picking balls out of a pot in Nyon," he added.

The Frenchman also accused Infantino of "slamming FIFA" for years and for not respecting women's football. 

"Can someone who slammed FIFA for ten years later become the president? He has also always criticised women's football and then he went to Paris to promote the Women's World Cup?" he claimed. 

Platini considered that there is no reason for him not to be able to return to football when his ban ends, although he highlighted that his priority is to clean his image after his corruption ban. 

"To start with I don't feel banned, even though I am for the rest of the world. Unless FIFA makes a rule saying that people who have been banned cannot come back for a few years after their ban ends, I can come back. But I still don't know, I don't know what I'll do. I am only interested in one thing. I'm not interested in the ban ending. I want to be considered clean. And that those who accused me also pay for it," he concluded.