Ode to Platini

Day -888. ‪WorldCup2018‬

 In today's most unsurprising news, Michel Platini announced that he will not be a candidate in the Fifa presidential elections. It seems only logical seeing as he was recently banned from all football activities for 8 years.....by Fifa. There was hope that he may rush his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in order to get the ban overturned by election day on February 26th, and even give himself sometime to campaign. However as he conceded today, "The timing is not good for me. I don't have the means to fight on equal terms with the other candidates."

And he added, "I have not been given the chance to play the game. Bye bye Fifa, bye bye Fifa presidency." If, as a young boy you were a fan adoring a football idol you could easily read that with a tinge of sadness and could easily forget things like "disloyal payments" and allegations of bribery and corruption. For this once-upon-a-time young boy, Platini was THE football hero, after Pele and Cruyff, just before the questionable idol status of Maradona, but definitely before the manufactured football celebrity-Beckham, Ronaldo...Messi?

1982 was my year, the year that I say it all started, my love for football. It was Brazil in World Cup '82 that got me all excited. But that love needed sustaining until Mexico '86. Sure there was Big League Soccer and Gary Shaw, Peter Withe and Trevor Morley. But I needed something big and it came out of France in 1984. I remember the European Championships that year for two things. One was that it was my brothers and I that watched the matches together. That my Dad (and even my sisters who maybe reluctantly watched the World Cup) wasn't around made my young football brain think that the Euros were nowhere as significant of an event as the World Cup.

The second memory was that it seemed that Platini was the only player on the pitch. Whenever a commentator shouted "goal!" it seemed to be followed by "Platini". Whenever we at home said, "wow, did you see that?" it was because of something Platini had just done. When France won the Euros, it wasn't 11 players who beat Spain in the final and the other teams along the way. It was just Platini, Platini took everybody on and beat them all.

After the Euros, the legend grew in my head. I discovered Juventus, because of Platini. While Italian football may have seemed boring, it was a different level when Juventus and Platini played. When I spent hours practicing bending free kicks around pretend player walls I wish now there was a 1980s Platini equivalent of "bend it like Beckham". When I got a pair of French football boots (Patrick) I was ecstatic that they were French. Now I would play like Platini! Many years later when I was lucky enough to visit the UEFA headquarters I only had one question, "When can I meet Mr. Platini?"

And if anybody would ever like to watch one of the greatest World Cup matches ever look for France-Brazil, Mexico, 1986. Platini was the maestro leading his famous midfield orchestra.

Is this too much? Was it too much adulation? As a young football fan it was fun to have a hero. Now there are no heroes I my head, only players who are admired for what they do. But with Platini, what now? He did do a lot for European football as UEFA president. Do I agree with one of his biggest projects, the Champions League? Not with most of it. But it has spread money around European football. Who would have thought, in 1985, that teams from Cyprus would be able to compete with the best teams in Europe. But therein lies a contradiction. All this has come about because more football (too much?) has led to more money. Platini has helped create the super teams, built with the influx of incredible amounts of money. And with more money come the temptations, the greed for even more. And that was his downfall.

All his mastery on the pitch was outdone, ultimately overshadowed, by what happened over the last year. Whether he is justified in his argument for innocence, through simple ignorance and naivety, will be forever debated. But as a long time fan, yet trying to remain impartial, it's hard not feel a bit of empathy with the man and his dignified fight.

"I'm taking this philosophically. Let's wait and see what happens. But injustice is revolting me and I'm trying to fight it."