Michel Platini is elected UEFA boss By Arne Richter


dpa German Press Agency
Published: Friday January 26, 2007

Dusseldorf- Michel Platini completed a transformation from European football star to the continent's top official on Friday when he was elected UEFA president. Platini won a secret ballot against Lennart Johansson of Sweden among the 52 member federations at the UEFA Congress with a 27-23 majority. Two votes were invalid.

Johansson was ousted after 17 years on the job since his first election as UEFA boss in 1990. The 77-yeare-old was bidding for a fifth term while Platini sought the top job for the first time.

Johansson was elected honorary president of UEFA immediately after losing to Platini.

Platini, 51, is the seventh president of UEFA and the second Frenchman to hold the post, following Jacques George, who held the job 1983-1990.

As a player, Platini captained France to the Euro 1984 title and was named European Footballer of the Year three times in a row 1983- 1985.

He was France coach 1988-1992, vice-president of the French 1998 World Cup organizing committee and an executive board member of UEFA and the world governing body FIFA since 2002.

"I took my time to prepare for the presidency. I am ready," said Platini, who was publically backed by FIFA president Joseph Blatter.

Platini named the presidency "a big adventure" and called for unity among the UEFA members after the tightly contested election campaign.

Platini has pledged more places for smaller nations in the lucrative European Champions League, planning to strip the leading nations Italy, Spain and England of their fourth berth.

He also said he plans to spend more time during his four-year term at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, than Johansson did in the past.

Earlier Saturday, the UEFA Congress voted overwhelmingly in favour of setting up a feasibility study on whether the number of European championship finalists should be increased from 16 to 24 teams in the future.

The motion from the Scottish FA was supported by 44 federations.

The tournament has been expanded twice so far since its inauguration in the 1960s. An eight-team format replaced the four- team finals in 1980 and the tournament was doubled to 16 teams at Euro 1996 in England.

While a vast majority approved the study to look into a further increase of teams, there was some scepticism whether this expansion to include almost half of the member federations will do the event good.

"Then you might as well play with all 52 teams," said German football icon Beckenbauer, a vice-president of the German football federation (DFB).

The 2008 edition in Austria and Switzerland will be played with 16 teams. The 2012 hosts will be elected in April from Italy, Hungary/Croatia and Poland/Ukraine.

Set for later Friday were further elections, with Beckenbauer seeking a place on the executive board of the world body FIFA as UEFA representative.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency