Liverpool FC Forum

by **NANNY RED** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 7:02 pm

I read this in the mirror this morning an youve got to give it to Brian Reade tells it like it is every time, Brilliant journalism imo

Michel Platini’s shown he is racist.. and FA must challenge him now

By Brian Reade 21/02/2009

Read Brian Reade’s football column on Mirror.co.uk every Saturday

I spotted Michel Platini walking through the first-class curtain on a flight between Seoul and Tokyo after the opening game of the 2002 World Cup.

Ever-conscious of my duty to Mirror readers, I walked into the realm of clinking Krug glasses, politely explained I was an English journalist and asked if I could have his reaction to Senegal's shock defeat of France.

He looked down his nose at me (which took a while), went “pah!” followed by “non.” When I asked why, he sighed and said it was because we were on a plane.

“No problem. Stay in your seat,” I replied. “No. You go back to yours,” he said, and stared past me at the clouds over the Sea of Japan.

A colleague who’d had dealings with him reckoned it was because he disliked the English and thought I was gloating. So I’ve watched with interest the debate over whether the UEFA president is anti-English or not. And I’d never fully bought the racist line.

Until this week when he addressed the European Parliament about the problems facing football. Now I think it’s proven beyond doubt.

Once again Platini laid the blame for the game’s ills at the door of the English, singling out Manchester City’s recent £100 million bid for Kaka. “Is it morally acceptable to offer such sums of money for a single player?” he implored the Brussels politicians.

And he may well have a point but how does he have the gall to suddenly finger City, when this was his reaction last July to Real Madrid preparing an £80m bid for Cristiano Ronaldo:

“The big clubs always want the best players and I can understand why Real would love to have him. It is normal for a club to want a player if they have the finances.”

A view endorsed by Platini’s silence when Real were reported to be offering £75m for Kaka back in 2007, and when AC Milan said it was putting aside £90m to buy Ronaldinho. As he says, vast sums will always be paid for the world's best players and if the club has the finances it’s OK? So why are City, who have the finances, suddenly immoral? The clue is the league in which they play.

When he gave his blessing to Real’s £80m bid for Ronaldo he ignored Manchester United’s justified allegations that he was being tapped up. It’s as though Platini wanted the best player in the world out of the Premier League to weaken it.

Hadn’t he been riled at England providing three of last year’s Champions League semi-finalists and claimed United and Chelsea had “cheated” their way to the final because technically they were in debt to their rich owners? Wasn't he delighted that the national side failed to make it to the Euros, saying: “Will we miss England? No.”

Doesn’t he ignore the situations at AC Milan, kept afloat by Silvio Berlusconi’s fortune and Juventus (by Gianni Agnelli’s), and the constant allegations that public money is siphoned into Real Madrid?

Platini may be right to advocate salary and transfer caps. But by continually citing the Premier League as the root of all evil, he proves his critics right. He is anti-English.

And it’s time someone at the FA loudly challenged this unacceptable bias from the leader of European football. Because if they don’t, at the very least they can wave goodbye to their precious 2018 World Cup bid.

Read the rest of Brian Reade's column here - and come back every Saturday for more

by **SouthCoastShankly** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:39 pm

Although I do not agree with the attitude of Platini at times, Brain Reade is clutching at straws. Its journalists like him that make people rightly label the red top papers 'rags'.

He is just stirring the public into forming an opinion that will sell papers.

by **NANNY RED** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 8:51 pm

I disagree with you there mate. Reade is one if not the best jouno around when it comes to football an mixing it with politics, Hes only saying what we know already , Hes not afraid to say what hes gotta say, Hes done it not just in the papers but in support of us an all , He always says what needs to be said. Remember Platini in the European cup final a couple of years ago wearing a milan scarf , well i do. He hates English football an we are top of that list,

by **Big Niall** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:38 pm

I agree with Platini on a few things. I like English clubs to have mostly English (or at least British or Irish) players and Spanish clubs spaniards etc so you get a real sense of England versus Spain (LFC had more spaniards than English in the team)

While I don't like the fact that one country's clubs seem to be untouchable in the champions league it has always been like that - Spain/Portugal early years, then Dutch/Germans in early to late 70s, English late 70s up to the ban and then Italians in the 1980s and 90s.

If dominance is with the English league now, then so be it.

However, the old fashioned part of me feels that it is too much about money now.

by **Big Niall** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:41 pm

Do you think Heysel might have scarred him?

On the biggest night of his life (only 1984 final for France can rival it) and his greatest achievement in club football, LFC fans ruined it.

No hiding behind that truth and it is terrible that the Juventus supporters died - although I never did understand why the Juventus players seemed so happy at full time bearing in mind that they knew about the deaths.

by **RUSHIE#9** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 3:28 pm

You'd have to say that would be logical conclusion to make. As far as I'm aware there isn't anything else that would give Platini this "Anti-English" stance he seems to have. TBH though it's something we'll probably never know, certainly not whilst he's the big cheese at UEFA.

by **Big Niall** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 5:09 pm

RUSHIE#9 wrote:certainly not whilst he's the big cheese at UEFA.

Is this cheese reference your racism against the French

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Brian reade spot on again - Platini is a racist

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