<br><div> <p data-end="718" data-start="249">Michel Platini once again spoke bluntly about football and his own downfall, in an extensive interview with <em>The Guardian</em>in which he accuses the behind-the-scenes governance of the game of having kept him from the path to the FIFA presidency.</p> <p data-end="718" data-start="249">Definitely acquitted by Swiss justice in the process related to a 2011 payment, the former UEFA leader considers that he was the victim of a political decision and points the finger at a system that, he says, “didn't want changes”.</p> <p data-end="1082" data-start="720">«I believed I was destined to be president of FIFA. Everything happened because they didn't want it", said Platini, now 70 years old, describing the suspension that kept him away from football for almost a decade as "a great injustice". The Frenchman guarantees that he never doubted his innocence, but admits the personal and family impact of years of public suspicion.</p> <p data-end="1531" data-start="1084">Although he rejects that Gianni Infantino was one of those directly responsible for his downfall, Platini considers that the current FIFA president benefited from the context created in 2015 and paints an unflattering portrait of his successor.</p> <p data-end="1531" data-start="1084">“It was a good number two, but it’s not a good number one. He likes rich and powerful people. Since the pandemic, he has become more autocratic and there is less democracy in FIFA today than in Blatter's time,” he said.</p> <p data-end="1973" data-start="1533">Platini's words come at a time when the newspaper <em>The World</em> revealed details about the evolution of Infantino's remuneration, reinforcing the contrast between the discourse on values and the financial reality at the top of world football.</p> <p data-end="1973" data-start="1533">According to tax documents presented in the United States, the FIFA president cost the organization around 5.27 million euros in 2024, including base salary, bonuses and other contractual benefits.</p> <p data-end="2380" data-start="1975">Specifically, Infantino received approximately 2.5 million euros in base salary, 1.6 million in bonuses and more than one million euros in other compensation, amounts much higher than those recorded at the beginning of his mandate, in 2016, when annual income was around 1.6 million euros and without associated bonuses. In eight years, the manager's annual cost to FIFA has more than tripled.</p> <p data-end="2706" data-start="2382">Platini, who defends a greater presence of UEFA as a counterweight to FIFA and more former players in decision-making bodies, sees in this context a growing move away from “romantic” football, which he says still mobilizes millions of fans.</p> <p data-end="2706" data-start="2382">«Today, many managers would do both football and basketball. It's just a business», he lamented.</p> <p data-end="3125" data-is-last-node="" data-is-only-node="" data-start="2708">With no intention of returning to the front line of administration, the former French international admits only a behind-the-scenes role in the future, but guarantees that he will not give up on “fighting for the truth”.</p> </div>
