Platini Arrested On Suspicion Of Corruption Over 2022 World Cup

The 63-year-old was questioned and detained by the Ministry of
Justice amid an investigation into the awarding of the hosting
rights of the tournament.

Former UEFA president Michel Platini has been detained by police
in France as part of an investigation into the decision to award
the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.

An investigation into the controversial decision to allow Qatar
to host the tournament, despite the Western Asian country’s human
rights record and logistical problems posed by the nation’s laws,
has led to the former France star being detained by French
prosecutors.

The French Ministry of Justice confirmed that anti-corruption
officers took the 63-year-old in for questioning in the Parisian
suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday morning.

A statement from the Ministry of Justice, given to Omnisport,
read: “Platini was taken in for questioning on Tuesday by officers
of the Anti-Corruption Office of the Judicial Police.

“Following questioning, he was detained.”

French newspaper Le Monde reports that the arrest is in relation
to a meeting Platini admitted attending with former France
president Nicolas Sarkozy and then Qatari crown prince – now Emir –
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani just days before the
vote to decide which country would host the 2022 edition of the
tournament.

In 2015, Platini was banned from football-related activity for
four years – reduced twice from an initial eight – due to a breach
of FIFA’s code of ethics after it was found he received a “disloyal
payment” from the governing body’s ex-president Sepp Blatter in
2011.

Platini has always maintained his innocence in the face of those
charges, though, insisting in 2016 that he “committed not the
slightest fault” and then saying last May that he was a victim of
Blatter trying to pass the blame along.

“In the end, he tried to save his own skin,” Platini told Le
Monde in 2018. “Blatter does not defend anyone else, he never
defended me. He’s the most selfish person I have seen in my
life.

“He always said I would be his last scalp. I know he was fixated
on me, to the end, ever since the ‘enough is enough’ comment, even
without considering the jealousy he had for the footballer I
was.”

Subscribe ToNairalaw News!