Platini offered support to Blatter’s candidacy after collecting £1.35 million, says report

Michel Platini indicated at Uefa’s congress in March 2011, weeks after he was paid £1.35m by Fifa on Sepp Blatter’s authority, that he would support Blatter’s candidacy in that year’s Fifa presidential elections.

Although no statement was made at the congress, sources close to the discussions say Platini resolved to back Blatter, rather than the rival candidate, the Qatari Mohamed bin Hammam

Blatter is understood to have promised Platini at the congress that if he won the election, it would be his final term as president. That would have left this year potentially clear for Platini to stand without having to rival Blatter, whereas if Bin Hammam had won in 2011, the Qatari could have been a successful incumbent in 2015 seeking a second term.

Platini’s support as Uefa president was crucial to influencing the presidential votes of Uefa’s then 53 national football associations.

The timing of Platini’s decision to support Blatter is likely to be central to the Fifa ethics committee investigation into whether the payment of the money, 2m Swiss francs, created an “actual or potential conflict of interest,” in breach of the organisation’s ethics code.

Uefa’s executive committee and representatives of its now 54 European associations meet in Nyon today to consider the position of Platini, who has been suspended by Fifa’s ethics committee for 90 days pending their investigation.

The Swiss attorney general, Michael Lauber, has initiated criminal proceedings into the payment, questioning Blatter as a suspect for “criminal mismanagement” or “appropriation” and Platini as “a person providing information”.

Article 19 of Fifa’s ethics code states that all football officials: “Shall avoid any situation that could lead to conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest arise if persons bound by this Code have, or appear to have, private or personal interests that detract from their ability to perform their duties with integrity in an independent and purposeful manner.”