UEFA denies knowledge of Blatter’s payment to Platini

Former president of UEFA, Lennart Johansson, has stated that the body was never informed about Sepp Blatter’s payment to Michel Platini.

A transaction of £1.35m that was paid by Blatter to Platini in 2011 is currently being investigated by Swiss prosecutors, and both the FIFA and UEFA presidents have subsequently been banned from all football-related activities for 90 days by FIFA’s ethics committee.

Platini, who has been interviewed as part of the investigation, has insisted the fee was for work he carried out for FIFA between 1999 and 2002, but Johansen, who was UEFA president between 1990 and 2007, insists UEFA had no knowledge.

“I was a member of the FIFA executive then and Blatter should have reported it to the executive but he never did. I never heard about this arrangement in FIFA,” Johansson told InsideWorldFootball.

Read also: FIFA suspends Blatter for 90 days

“This is quite a lot of money, not a small amount. I have only learnt through the media that Platini claims that he has a contract with FIFA.”

Platini insists the nine-year delay in payment was because of “the financial situation at FIFA” but it came just weeks before the Frenchman decided not to stand against Blatter or the FIFA presidency in 2011.

Platini had replaced Johansson as UEFA president two years earlier, but the Swede continued to attend UEFA executive meetings as honorary president and says the payment was never disclosed.

Both Platini and Blatter have appealed their suspensions and deny any wrongdoing.

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