Despite the fact that the choice of Qatar to host the World Cup 2022 caused a lot of controversy at the time, the former president of UEFA, Michel Platini He reappeared to refer to the issue and state that he does not regret said process since the Arab country “deserved it.”
“I don’t regret the vote, I wanted to give the Arabs a World Cup. They deserved it. Except that the emir had promised me games in other states too, the Emirates, Dubai, Kuwait. A pity”, confessed Platini in ‘La Gazzetta dello Sport’.
Regarding the current situation of his personal life, the former rector of European football stated that he is fine, enjoying his family and that he no longer has aspirations within the world of football.
“I feel very well. I am 66 years old, I no longer shake hands with hypocrites, I enjoy my wife, my family, my grandchildren. In football I have no more dreams”, Platini pointed out in the interview granted to the aforementioned Italian media outlet.
In turn, the former Italian soccer player revealed that some organizations asked him to come back, however he did not find a good reason to do it since he no longer plans to do political work.
“They asked me to come back, clubs, organizations, but I didn’t find any papers. Maybe I would like to work for the players, take power in football. I would think so. No politics,” he said.
In this sense, Platini referred to the current presidents of FIFA and UEFA, Gianni Infantino and Aleksander Ceferin, respectively, for whom he admitted very lightly that he did not feel any respect for them since “they do what do they want”.
Regarding the corruption case for which he was investigated a few years ago years, the former sports manager let it be known that “I will never forgive those who falsely accused me and left me out of football. They won, but I will always seek justice.”
On the other hand, Platini thinks that “all professional football must change governance”.
“We need a League made up only of presidents. UEFA and FIFA deal with national teams. I am talking about the League, not the Super League, a championship with an administrative structure. I do not agree with a closed championship for a few”, he added.
Finally, Platini referred to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi and criticized them for having left the clubs where they made history and continue in European football.
“With all due respect to him (CR7) and Messi, I to the 32 I said ‘enough’. I was able to go to Barcelona, Marseille, but I wanted to identify myself with the club with which we had written history. Cristiano was Real Madrid and Messi was Barça, I would not have gone to another big club, but to the USA or China”, he sentenced.
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