There is an obituary, of sorts, for Michel Platini in me somewhere. Tomorrow I will put the sentences together that will re-create the childhood memories of Platini.
In the meantime it was heartening to hear Platini's dignified response today to his 8 year ban. Without the "what have I done wrong" theatrics of Sepp Blatter, Platini said he felt hard done by, that nothing was done about this for 4 years and all of a sudden he is investigated over this "disloyal payment". And he is upset, quite rightly I believe, that he has been associated so negatively with Blatter : "Whatever happens, my reputation has been sullied, I've been kicked in the teeth: I've been put in the same bag as Blatter."
And in a much more measured tone than Blatter's he has resigned himself to the fact that might be an ultimately unfavourable outcome: "I will fight. But then I'll take my responsibilities according to what happens."
Blatter maintains that if the 2022 World Cup had been awarded to the USA then none of this would have happened, there would have been no investigations and arrests because the Americans would have been happy. That's his opinion. As it is my opinion that no matter how much Platini protests his innocence the fact that he voted for Qatar in 2022, and then went so far as to go ahead with a change in the European football season to accommodate a winter World Cup will forever leave doubts as to his innocence. And therein lies my dilemma. A good man guilty of no more than one bad, maybe greedy decision, or a man of questionable choices who went one step to far with his support of Qatar?
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