I’m so glad that sporticidal Fifa president Gianni Infantino got to enjoy his second-term victory speech two weeks ago entirely free of spoilers. “Nobody talks about crisis at Fifa any more or rebuilding it from scratch,” he announced from the stage. “Nobody talks about scandals or corruption – we talk about football. We can say that we’ve turned the situation around. This organisation has gone from being toxic, almost criminal, to being what it should be – an organisation that develops football and is now synonymous with transparency, integrity.”
Mmm. Following the detention of former Uefa boss Michel Platini on Tuesday, this now joins the ever-lengthening list of things that Infantino is wrong about. Or does it? Platini is in some way the most disheartening of all the Fifa round-ups. We had so long come to expect certain behaviours of professional leeches like Jack Warner, whose only true talent brought joy to no one but their bank managers. That the corruption machine could be even alleged to have devoured perhaps France’s greatest player is a much more tragic state of affairs. Platini has been released without charge, and denies all accusations. As he put it: “I feel totally foreign to any of these matters.”
Related: Michel Platini detained over award of 2022 World Cup to Qatar
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