UEFA President Michel Platini (left) and FIFA President Sepp Blatter pictured before the semi-final match of the Euro 2012 between Germany and Italy in Warsaw, Poland, in this file picture of July 1, 2012.
BERLIN: UEFA president Michel Platini says he is undecided whether he will run for head of world governing body FIFA, in an interview published by German sports daily Kicker yesterday.
“I don’t know what I will do,” said the Frenchman who has been embroiled in a well publicised dispute with current FIFA president Sepp Blatter over the new format for Euro 2020 that will be played in cities across the continent.
“I have thought about it for a long time because everyone asks me the same question. President Blatter said he will leave so the position will be available, but for who? We’ll have to see,” added the former three-time European player of the year.
Blatter, who was re-elected in 2011, has previously announced he will step down at the end of his mandate in 2015 and said Platini would make a “good possible successor”.
The Swiss, however, has attacked the controversial format of Euro 2020, claiming the scattering of the tournament over 13 countries would not make it a true European championship.
“A tournament belongs to a country, across which is created an identity and state of euphoria. The 2020 tournament has been dispersed and it is no longer a true European championship,” said the 77-year-old.
But Platini dismissed Blatter’s remarks in an interview with French paper L’Equipe.
“A European championship of nations will never have been better named as for the first time it will be played across the entire European continent.”
Meanwhile, Blatter has said he will not stand for a fifth term when his current mandate ends in 2015 as long as there is a candidate to replace him who he believes will continue his work to ‘globalise’ soccer.
“I will not carry on as long as there is at least one candidate prepared to continue my work,” Blatter said in an interview with Spanish sports daily As published yesterday.
“The most important thing for me is that the person who takes over FIFA does so with the spirit of globalisation of soccer that we have developed in recent years,” he added.
Blatter named two possible successors: Platini, and Angel Maria Villar, the president of the Spanish soccer federation (RFEF) and a vice president of both UEFA and FIFA.
“Michel Platini could be a possible successor as we started together in 1998,” Blatter said.
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