Michel Platini reiterates innocence and determination to fight FIFA suspension

The UEFA President, Michel Platini, reiterated on Wednesday that his conscience is clear and that he will continue to fight to revoke a FIFA suspension in his farewell speech to European football leaders who will choose his successor.

The FIFA ethics judge allowed Platini to address the UEFA congress as a "gesture of humanity," despite serving a four-year ban from any football-related position for accepting an improper payment.

In a pause from his forced exile, Platini used the platform in Athens to highlight his achievements since taking presidency of the European football governing body in 2007 and advise his successor.

UEFA delegates applauded, although they did not offer a standing ovation, at the end of the speech by the former French star, who concluded by saying, "Football friends, goodbye."

Prior to that, without offering details of the accusations, Platini insisted that there was nothing improper in accepting a payment of two million Swiss francs (two million euros) from FIFA in 2001.

"Be clear that my conscience is clean, that I am convinced that I did not commit the slightest error, and that I will continue the legal battle," he said before an audience composed, among others, of the new FIFA President, Gianni Infantino. "I want to thank all those present in this room who had the courage and loyalty to support me during the last few months."

It was expected that Platini, 61, would have by now left the UEFA presidency to lead FIFA. However, the Ethics Committee's sanction made Infantino, the former UEFA administrator, assume the destiny that was reserved for Platini, according to him, at the helm of world football's governing body.

This is a tumultuous end to a decades-long career in the world of football, which took Platini from winning titles on the field with Juventus and France, to becoming one of the most powerful leaders in the sport before his downfall last year.

Platini's four-year term, which expires in 2019, will be completed by either UEFA Vice President Michael van Praag or the head of the Slovenian Football Federation, Aleksander Ceferin, the two candidates in Wednesday's election in Athens.

Platini told the contenders that "football is a game before a product, a sport before a market, a spectacle before a market."

"For millions of people around the world, football is (...) a flame," he added. "We have achieved so much together over nine years to develop and preserve this flame."

After expressing his confidence that the sport is "on the right path," the former footballer warned that "serious abuses" continue to undermine football.

"Continue to balance the reality of the sport and the economic interests," he declared.

AP