Collision between Platini and Premier League could wreck England World Cup bid

By David Owen

November 11 – Whenever Michel Platini (pictured) turns to the issue of football club finances, England’s 2018/22 World Cup bid team must hold their collective breath.

The French midfield maestro turned UEFA President is the world’s most powerful football populist; England’s Premier League, and the storied clubs that compete in it, the best example of football as Big Business.

Any collision between the two between now and December 2010 could deal a serious blow to England’s hopes of staging FIFA’s flagship tournament for a second time.

In an interview granted to a British newspaper last week, in which the debts carried by some English clubs were among the main talking-points, Platini  – a leading member of the 24-man FIFA Executive Committee that will decide where both tournaments are played – offered various clues as to the state of relations with key figures in the English game.

The first such pointer was less than reassuring: asked by Henry Winter, one of the most polished and knowledgeable of British football writers, whether he shouldn’t speak with Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore, the Frenchman retorted, “No – why should I?”.

When it was pointed out that Scudamore was rather an influential figure though, Platini’s answer was more constructive.

“Perhaps, yes,” he acknowledged.

“But I speak with Lord Triesman of your national association [also chairman of England’s World Cup bid].

“I get on with him.

“He knows there are problems in English football and does his best to help.”

Platini also had positive words for David Gill, chief executive of Manchester United, who also serves as one of three deputy chairmen of the England World Cup bid.

“Gill is a very good guy,” he said.

I found the interview instructive in other ways.

Winter’s article began with an account by Platini of a conversation he once had with Gianni Agnelli (pictured), the late former Fiat boss who was also closely connected with Juventus, one of the clubs the Frenchman played for.

Platini had told me the self-same story when I interviewed him three years ago in Paris before he won the UEFA Presidency from Lennart Johansson, a gruff Swede.

In the story, Platini asks Agnelli who football belongs to and is astonished by the response: “It belongs to the fans and the press.”

As Platini told me (and Winter), “I only believed half of it.

“I believe it belongs to the supporters…and the players.”

The repetition of the anecdote, in near identical terms, over such a long period suggested to me that this is a man who has made up his mind where he stands on this fundamental issue and is highly unlikely to change it.

I have though deduced something else about Platini over the past three years that those who deal with him might bear in mind.

When I spoke to him, he gave what, so far as I know, was the first inkling of a reform he had in mind in the format of the Champions League, Europe’s premier club football competition.

“I think that four clubs per country is too many,” he told me.

“I think the Champions League today is formatted as a priority for the big clubs.”

I have little reason to think that he would have changed his opinion on this either.

And yet last week, Arsenal, Chelsea Manchester United and Liverpool were as usual involved in crunch Champions League fixtures.

From this I would conclude that, even if set in his views, he can be a patient and pragmatic man, more so than he is sometimes given credit for.

UEFA is now embarking on implementation of a series of “Financial Fair Play measures” hat may, though the concept has been approved by the European Club Association Board, prove a source of robust debate inside the game and could even, in my view, trigger the sort of collision the England bid must be dreading.

These measures include an obligation for clubs to balance their books over a certain time period and the provision of what UEFA terms an “indicator” on the sustainability of debt.

The measures are to be introduced in UEFA competitions starting with the 2012-13 season.

If his approach to the issue of the Champions League format is any guide, I would not be surprised if Platini came out with some fairly strong statements in the early stages of this process.

Indeed, an editorial column authored by him on UEFA’s website already states: “t is intolerable that, for some clubs, participating in the European competitions has become an obligation that is indispensable for balancing their books and that, consequently, they are not afraid to borrow money to achieve their objective, leading them into a spiral of debt that can ultimately ruin them.”

For the sake of England’s World Cup bid – which is up against three European rivals (Spain, Russia plus a joint bid from Belgium and Holland), as well as up to six bidders from other continents – I would hope that club representatives address this process in its initial stages with a cool head.

There should still be time to move onto a more forceful footing, if it is judged necessary, once Platini and his FIFA colleagues have ruled on who is staging the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in December next year.

Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1738960594labto1738960594ofdlr1738960594owedi1738960594sni@n1738960594ewo.d1738960594ivad1738960594.