With Sepp Blatter already tearing into Gianni Infantino, one of his former bosses has been slightly more gentle, but brutal nonetheless.
FIFA president Infantino is continually unpopular over the awarding of World Cups to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, while his sycophancy towards Donald Trump has drawn particular ire given his previous ‘keep politics out of sport’ style remarks.
With numerous doubts about this summer’s World Cup in the Americas, football executives have been given the chance to speak out against Infantino, particularly given that he no longer holds press conferences.
One of those is Platini, the France legend who was in charge of him when he was president of UEFA.
Discussing his former number two, Platini said: “He’s involved in politics, but I don’t think he’s good at it.
“He’s a good administrator. He’s not charismatic, I don’t think he says the right things, but he was my general secretary and a good number two.
“In fact, when he put himself forward, I wasn’t entirely in favor of him running, because I don’t think he was necessarily the president football needed.
“But he’s a guy passionate about football, who doesn’t sleep much, who works incredibly hard.
“He’s a good general secretary who got the team working, but being president is something else entirely. You have to be a number 10.”
Platini worries about Infantino’s friends
He added on Infantino’s relationships: “He is a big fan of people who are rich and powerful. He has always been like that.
“But when he was secretary general, he had a president and other people at UEFA who managed him.”
Asked about Infantino blocking his return to UEFA, Platini finally said: “I think he took advantage of my problems, but I don’t think he hurt me.
“I don’t think he intended to. Then he put me on criminal charges because he didn’t want me to come back, certainly, but he wasn’t the one who started this whole affair.”
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