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UEFA's Platini Displays Some Deft Moves
The New York Times
October 17, 2009
By ROB HUGHES
Michel Platini, the outstanding French sportsman of his time, moves in
different circles today.
Two weeks ago, he was in Jerusalem discussing with Israel¹s head of state,
Shimon Peres, the role soccer might play in the Middle East peace process.
Platini followed that up Wednesday by accompanying the presidents of Turkey
and Armenia at a World Cup soccer match between the two nations in Bursa. It
was the first time an Armenian president had attended a bilateral event in
Turkey since relationships were broken off during World War I.
UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations, which Platini heads,
heralded the event as ³Football for peace ? three Presidents in Bursa² over
a picture of Armenia¹s Serzh Sargsyan; Turkey¹s Abdullah Gul; and UEFA¹s
Platini side by side in the tribune.
It may be a bit presumptive to equate a sports official with the leader of a
country. But the visits to Jerusalem and Bursa appear to be soccer¹s answer
to the Ping-Pong diplomacy of 1971, when table tennis players from the
United States became the first American sports delegation to visit the
People¹s Republic of China since 1949. That helped pave the way for
President Richard M. Nixon to pay his visit to China a year later.
Platini¹s biggest challenge, however, may come closer to home, where he is
hoping to persuade European politicians to support reining in excessive
spending by the richest soccer clubs.
In Bursa, Platini appeared to leave the politics to the politicians. At the
postgame reception, he told a correspondent from the Azeri Press Agency: ³I
am French and unaware of the problems between Turkey, Armenia and
Azerbaijan. Therefore I am interested in the future of football more than
these problems. The present generation likes to engage in the past, I think
we should escape the hardships of the past and think about the common
future.²
But Platini is much more of a political animal than that brief exchange
suggests. As head of UEFA, the administrative body for Europe¹s 53 national
soccer federations, he deals daily with the complexity of representing 27
associations that are subject to European Union law, and a further 26 that
lie outside the European bloc.
As a player, Platini oozed elegance, an almost languid form of creation. As
an administrator, now 54, he cannot get away with that. ³I was a leader on
the field,³ he said during a lengthy interview not long ago. ³Now I should
be a leader for the game. For me, it is a game ? with many, many things
attached, but still a game. It has to remain a game, or nobody will save
it.²
Platini fought in his schooldays for soccer to be an accepted profession in
France. He resisted the French attitude of soccer as a secondary sport to
rugby, and as a diversion, nothing more, in a man¹s life. He made his
fortune at club level in his father¹s homeland, with Italy¹s Juventus. The
now-deceased owner, Gianni Agnelli, the Fiat company mogul, personally chose
Platini and adored his presence in the team.
But in a second career, Platini is attempting to bring sports and politics
together in untried ways.
In the United States, for example, Bill Bradley, a Rhodes scholar moved from
being a professional basketball star for the New York Knicks to the U.S.
Senate as a Democrat representing New Jersey. The Soviet system had Oleg
Blokhin, a winger in the U.S.S.R. team of the 1960s to 1980s, who went on to
be a member of the Ukrainian Parliament while also coaching the national
soccer team.
But Platini seeks something more elaborate. At the start of this year, he
addressed the European Parliament for, appropriately enough, the 90 minutes
that it takes to play a soccer game.
He offered the lawmakers a deal. He said he would do everything he could to
ensure that soccer operates within European law provided they let him govern
the sport.
It was not as simple as it sounds. Soccer, which Platini alongside every
other European calls football, has long been seen to be out of step with
European legislation, notably its trade and antitrust laws. This despite the
fact that the origins of the European Union can be traced back over 50
years, almost the same moment that soccer¹s European Champions League began
to capture a global following.
There were, and possibly still are, members of that Parliament who believe
in the old adage that a soccer player is a man whose brains begin in the
toes and terminate at the knees. There was plenty of skepticism toward a
former player pleading the case that sport in Europe needs what it gets in
America ? some acknowledgement of its special place in society and some
freedom to operate under its own laws.
But Platini is making progress. In September, the European Commission, the
executive arm of the E.U., held a two-day conference on licensing systems
for club competitions. Surprisingly, this conference, for all sports,
broadly supported Platini¹s determination to bring the soccer teams within
Europe, even those run by free-spending multibillionaires, under an UEFA
umbrella to regulate club spending.
Even more startling was the support Platini received from the leading clubs,
at meetings timed to coincide with the E.U. conference, to make every club
on the Continent agree to spend only what they could earn through soccer, or
be barred from entering UEFA¹s prized competitions, the Champions League and
the Europa League, from the year 2012.
That clock is ticking because the status quo has spun out of control. Real
Madrid, for example, took out bank loans to the tune of almost half a
billion dollars this summer to build a team of new stars. Half the English
Premier League is bankrolled by overseas¹ investors ? from Russian oligarchs
to Abu Dhabi sheiks ? pouring in two to three times more than earned income
to make their teams great.
³I am nothing, just one man,² Platini said. ³But I was elected by the
national associations because I promised to make financial fair play in
soccer. I don¹t want to be above the law, I know that we could lose in the
courts if clubs use lawyers to stop us imposing limitations. I asked the
politicians to help protect us, if they trust what we are doing.²
It becomes clear that Platini is prepared to run as far in office as he did
on the field. Paradoxically, when he first sought to translate his playing
skills into coaching, he failed. I watched him on the sidelines of his team
being run to defeat one chilly, cheerless, misty night in Belgrade in 1988.
Platini didn¹t admit his team¹s limitations, and he didn¹t look for the
political undertones of Yugoslavia beginning to break apart. He was just one
man trying to make lesser players extensions of himself.
Had he succeeded, he might never have sought the role of trying to coerce or
coax the clubs from over reaching their limits. His chief adviser, William
Gaillard, a Frenchman who worked in International Air Transport and the
United Nations Drug Control Program, spent weeks last year observing
American sports¹ governance.
³For the land of the free,² Platini joked, ³the United States has more rules
and regulations than anybody else!²
³But there are things we prefer in the European model,² he added. ³We have
the dream of promotion and the consequence of relegation, which we intend to
keep. And we don¹t think moving a franchise, uprooting a team from its
community, would ever be accepted here.²
So, what is his biggest challenge, to persuade clubs to be prudent or to
persuade the European Parliament to allow sport its own destiny? ³Good
question,² he answered. ³If I persuade Europe, I don¹t need to persuade
football. I do it!²
The New York Times
October 17, 2009
By ROB HUGHES
Michel Platini, the outstanding French sportsman of his time, moves in
different circles today.
Two weeks ago, he was in Jerusalem discussing with Israel¹s head of state,
Shimon Peres, the role soccer might play in the Middle East peace process.
Platini followed that up Wednesday by accompanying the presidents of Turkey
and Armenia at a World Cup soccer match between the two nations in Bursa. It
was the first time an Armenian president had attended a bilateral event in
Turkey since relationships were broken off during World War I.
UEFA, the Union of European Football Associations, which Platini heads,
heralded the event as ³Football for peace ? three Presidents in Bursa² over
a picture of Armenia¹s Serzh Sargsyan; Turkey¹s Abdullah Gul; and UEFA¹s
Platini side by side in the tribune.
It may be a bit presumptive to equate a sports official with the leader of a
country. But the visits to Jerusalem and Bursa appear to be soccer¹s answer
to the Ping-Pong diplomacy of 1971, when table tennis players from the
United States became the first American sports delegation to visit the
People¹s Republic of China since 1949. That helped pave the way for
President Richard M. Nixon to pay his visit to China a year later.
Platini¹s biggest challenge, however, may come closer to home, where he is
hoping to persuade European politicians to support reining in excessive
spending by the richest soccer clubs.
In Bursa, Platini appeared to leave the politics to the politicians. At the
postgame reception, he told a correspondent from the Azeri Press Agency: ³I
am French and unaware of the problems between Turkey, Armenia and
Azerbaijan. Therefore I am interested in the future of football more than
these problems. The present generation likes to engage in the past, I think
we should escape the hardships of the past and think about the common
future.²
But Platini is much more of a political animal than that brief exchange
suggests. As head of UEFA, the administrative body for Europe¹s 53 national
soccer federations, he deals daily with the complexity of representing 27
associations that are subject to European Union law, and a further 26 that
lie outside the European bloc.
As a player, Platini oozed elegance, an almost languid form of creation. As
an administrator, now 54, he cannot get away with that. ³I was a leader on
the field,³ he said during a lengthy interview not long ago. ³Now I should
be a leader for the game. For me, it is a game ? with many, many things
attached, but still a game. It has to remain a game, or nobody will save
it.²
Platini fought in his schooldays for soccer to be an accepted profession in
France. He resisted the French attitude of soccer as a secondary sport to
rugby, and as a diversion, nothing more, in a man¹s life. He made his
fortune at club level in his father¹s homeland, with Italy¹s Juventus. The
now-deceased owner, Gianni Agnelli, the Fiat company mogul, personally chose
Platini and adored his presence in the team.
But in a second career, Platini is attempting to bring sports and politics
together in untried ways.
In the United States, for example, Bill Bradley, a Rhodes scholar moved from
being a professional basketball star for the New York Knicks to the U.S.
Senate as a Democrat representing New Jersey. The Soviet system had Oleg
Blokhin, a winger in the U.S.S.R. team of the 1960s to 1980s, who went on to
be a member of the Ukrainian Parliament while also coaching the national
soccer team.
But Platini seeks something more elaborate. At the start of this year, he
addressed the European Parliament for, appropriately enough, the 90 minutes
that it takes to play a soccer game.
He offered the lawmakers a deal. He said he would do everything he could to
ensure that soccer operates within European law provided they let him govern
the sport.
It was not as simple as it sounds. Soccer, which Platini alongside every
other European calls football, has long been seen to be out of step with
European legislation, notably its trade and antitrust laws. This despite the
fact that the origins of the European Union can be traced back over 50
years, almost the same moment that soccer¹s European Champions League began
to capture a global following.
There were, and possibly still are, members of that Parliament who believe
in the old adage that a soccer player is a man whose brains begin in the
toes and terminate at the knees. There was plenty of skepticism toward a
former player pleading the case that sport in Europe needs what it gets in
America ? some acknowledgement of its special place in society and some
freedom to operate under its own laws.
But Platini is making progress. In September, the European Commission, the
executive arm of the E.U., held a two-day conference on licensing systems
for club competitions. Surprisingly, this conference, for all sports,
broadly supported Platini¹s determination to bring the soccer teams within
Europe, even those run by free-spending multibillionaires, under an UEFA
umbrella to regulate club spending.
Even more startling was the support Platini received from the leading clubs,
at meetings timed to coincide with the E.U. conference, to make every club
on the Continent agree to spend only what they could earn through soccer, or
be barred from entering UEFA¹s prized competitions, the Champions League and
the Europa League, from the year 2012.
That clock is ticking because the status quo has spun out of control. Real
Madrid, for example, took out bank loans to the tune of almost half a
billion dollars this summer to build a team of new stars. Half the English
Premier League is bankrolled by overseas¹ investors ? from Russian oligarchs
to Abu Dhabi sheiks ? pouring in two to three times more than earned income
to make their teams great.
³I am nothing, just one man,² Platini said. ³But I was elected by the
national associations because I promised to make financial fair play in
soccer. I don¹t want to be above the law, I know that we could lose in the
courts if clubs use lawyers to stop us imposing limitations. I asked the
politicians to help protect us, if they trust what we are doing.²
It becomes clear that Platini is prepared to run as far in office as he did
on the field. Paradoxically, when he first sought to translate his playing
skills into coaching, he failed. I watched him on the sidelines of his team
being run to defeat one chilly, cheerless, misty night in Belgrade in 1988.
Platini didn¹t admit his team¹s limitations, and he didn¹t look for the
political undertones of Yugoslavia beginning to break apart. He was just one
man trying to make lesser players extensions of himself.
Had he succeeded, he might never have sought the role of trying to coerce or
coax the clubs from over reaching their limits. His chief adviser, William
Gaillard, a Frenchman who worked in International Air Transport and the
United Nations Drug Control Program, spent weeks last year observing
American sports¹ governance.
³For the land of the free,² Platini joked, ³the United States has more rules
and regulations than anybody else!²
³But there are things we prefer in the European model,² he added. ³We have
the dream of promotion and the consequence of relegation, which we intend to
keep. And we don¹t think moving a franchise, uprooting a team from its
community, would ever be accepted here.²
So, what is his biggest challenge, to persuade clubs to be prudent or to
persuade the European Parliament to allow sport its own destiny? ³Good
question,² he answered. ³If I persuade Europe, I don¹t need to persuade
football. I do it!²