Former UEFA President Michel Platini says he has been left feeling ‘hurt’ after being detained as part of a corruption investigation over the controversial awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
Platini, who was taken in for questioning in Paris yesterday, is currently serving a four-year ban from soccer that was handed down in 2015, over a $2 million payment he received from world governing body FIFA.
Upon leaving the police station later, Platini, who led UEFA, the sport’s European governing body between 2007-2015, told reporters: “I came here freely and they immediately put me in custody … It hurts, it hurts for everyone I can think of, everything I did, it hurts, it hurts.
“I have always been serene because I feel foreign to any type of business,” he added.
“It’s an old case, you know, we’ve explained it, I’ve always expressed myself in full transparency in all the newspapers, and that’s it and it’s going on, we’re doing investigations, they’re looking … That’s it. ”
Platini, a three-time Ballon d’Or winner and star player of the France team which won the 1984 European Championship finals, has always denied any wrongdoing.
Platini’s lawyer, William Bourdon, told reporters he believed the case against his client was now closed.
“A lot of noise about nothing,” Bourdon told reporters after Tuesday’s events.
“During a very long hearing Michel Platini delivered his testimony in a sincere way and a precise way in response to all the questions that were put to him.
“We do not consider in any way that Michel Platini can be considered a suspect in anything, no more yesterday, than today, than tomorrow. So for us the case is closed.”
Platini’s interrogation has once again raised questions over the controversial decision to host the upcoming World Cup in Qatar, a small but wealthy Middle Eastern nation which lacks the infrastructure or sporting tradition of previous host countries. Qatari organizers have repeatedly denied allegations of wrongdoing in the bidding process.
