Michel Platini does something good at last… but now he must call for a re-vote on the Qatar World Cup

UEFA will back Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein of Jordan in the vote for FIFA president against current incumbent Sepp Blatter
If that fails Platini will instigate a discussion that could remove UEFA from world football
Take the European market away and the World Cup is dead commercially
And if the World Cup dies in 2018 it takes Blatter with it
Removing Blatter is only stage one. FIFA’s decisions poisoned the game as efficiently as bribery
Platini should clean his own house and back the call for the Qatar vote to be rerun

Published:
21:27 GMT, 28 May 2015

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Updated:
00:12 GMT, 29 May 2015

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They were all coming out in support of Sepp Blatter. Vladimir Putin, those upstanding gentlemen from the Confederation of African Football — truly, he only needed Islamic State to immolate an unbeliever in his honour and FIFA’s president would have had the full set.

Meanwhile, for some of us, a truly remarkable sight. Michel Platini as the good guy. UEFA’s president making a public stand that could, one day, effect positive change in world football.

UEFA will back Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein of Jordan in the vote for FIFA president and, if that fails — as seems likely — Platini will instigate a discussion that could remove UEFA from world football. This may be the crisis that makes Blatter’s position untenable.

Not throughout the rest of the game. Those discredited Blatter cronies at CAF, for instance, are arrogant enough to think a World Cup could go ahead without Europe. But the sponsors wouldn’t fall for it.

Michel Platini explains that UEFA may leave FIFA if president Sepp Blatter is re-elected for a fifth term

Blatter, flanked by Linda Barras, speaks to Swiss sports minister Ueli Maurer at FIFA’s Congress

A European team has won the the last three World Cups, and 11 of 20 since the tournament’s inception

Those with kit and soft drinks and lifestyles to sell know where the money is. Take the European market away and the World Cup is dead commercially. And if the World Cup dies in 2018 it takes Blatter with it.

There is a long way to go yet. Platini is not in favour of UEFA’s secession. He knows the decision would be far from unanimous. Russia, for instance, will not walk away from a World Cup it is due to host, and the country still has power and allies in the east.

The fact that Platini is even entertaining a vote on the matter, however, shows the strength of feeling among many UEFA members. This is bigger than any one executive. There is a groundswell of revulsion over FIFA and all who stand with her as the allegations of corruption grow.

Asked whether European nations could boycott FIFA events, Platini said all options were possible. ‘There may be proposals,’ he admitted. ‘But I honestly don’t wish that.’

It would certainly be a dramatic measure, with the draw for the qualifying rounds of the 2018 tournament scheduled to take place in St Petersburg on July 25. Yet the battle lines are becoming increasingly plain. A vote for Blatter is a vote for sleaze — so logic suggests anyone who sides with him must be a sleazeball.

Vladimir Putin backed Blatter’s leadership and criticised the USA’s involvement in FIFA’s corruption scandal

Blatter awards the 2018 World Cup to Russia at FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich five years ago

Jordanian Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein is Blatter’s only opponent for Friday’s FIFA presidential election

Manuel Nascimento Lopes, president of the federation of Guinea-Bissau, described the attacks on Blatter as ‘blasphemy’ and a ‘state conspiracy’. The immediate presumption is that Lopes is behind Blatter for the darkest reasons. Unjust? Well, what other explanation could there be?

Viewed dispassionately, why would anyone support a man who is, at best, incompetent for letting so much fraud take place on his watch? It cannot be claimed that Blatter is a gifted administrator if events have spiralled out of his control. And incompetence is a resignation issue.

Of course, if Blatter is not incompetent, then he must have known criminal activity was taking place, and did not act efficiently against it. So that’s also a reason to stand down.

The third option is most serious of all: he didn’t act because he was party to it all along. And should quit, pending an inevitable knock on the door from the FBI.

FIFA claimed that the arrests of seven senior executives under suspicion of a £100million criminal conspiracy on Wednesday was good for the organisation. Self-serving rubbish, obviously. But Thursday was good for UEFA.

Europe’s governing body, for once, came out fighting — with Platini telling Blatter to quit, and David Gill then refusing to take up his newly elected position on FIFA’s executive board in protest. This was a considerable upgrade on the rhetoric and gesture politics that have been UEFA’s usual stance. It was reported this week, for instance, that FIFA had been denied their traditional 50 tickets for the Champions League final in Berlin on June 6.

David Gill will not take up his position on FIFA’s executive board if Blatter is re-elected for a fifth term

Blatter and Platini talk ahead of FIFA’s congress last year, but relations between the two are at an all-time low

Blatter has been in charge of FIFA since 1998 and has survived many conspiracies and controversies

So that was UEFA’s big idea. They were going to ticket FIFA into submission? No wonder Blatter felt flameproof. At least after Platini’s Press conference he will know he faces a tougher opponent than the online booking system at Ticketmaster.

Still, if UEFA are to join ranks with the forces of good, there remains one problem. Platini voted for Qatar 2022. This was the decision that provoked the most furious denouncements of FIFA and inspired the many investigations that followed, the act that was considered so baffling it could only have been sparked by nefarious means. And Platini backed it. What would help, then, was if Platini cleaned his own house and backed the call for the Qatar vote to be rerun.

The ballot sheet did not actually contain the World Cup that will take place in 2022 — the one that has been pushed back to the middle of the European football season in November and December to avoid scorching desert temperatures.

Platini says he feels the Middle East deserves a World Cup and would vote the same way again. Fine, let him do that — and if Qatar wins a second time, having been honest about when the tournament will take place, at least we will know the count was clean.

Platini sits between UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino and Pedro Pinto during his press conference

Platini has threatened to take decisive action which will change the face of world football if Blatter gets in

Activists from advocacy group Avaaz have called for Blatter’s resignation and for Qatar to end slave labour

As it stands, Platini is presenting himself as an honest broker, having been part of the decision that as good as put Blatter and his accomplices under scrutiny.

‘Enough is enough, too much is too much,’ Platini said. Indeed it is, but removing Blatter is only stage one. FIFA’s decisions poisoned the game as efficiently as bribery. The biggest ones need to be revisited; even those that found favour with Platini, now such a great convert to the cause of reform.