ZURICH (AP) – Complaining that he is being “dragged through the mud” in the FIFA corruption investigation, Michel Platini believes he is “bullet proof” and has not lost support in his bid to replace Sepp Blatter as the head of world soccer’s governing body.
The UEFA president, who has been suspended for 90 days along with Blatter, confirmed in an interview published Monday in the French daily Le Monde that he had no written contract for the $2 million payment he received from FIFA in 2011.
Risking further FIFA ethics sanctions by breaking confidentiality rules, Platini gave a detailed defense in the case that threatens to end his presidential hopes.
The extra pay for his job advising Blatter from 1998-2002 was “a thing between two men,” Platini said, giving a new version of why FIFA could not pay him in full more than a decade ago.
“I think it’s shameful to be dragged through the mud,” he said, insisting the case was not a scandal.