{"id":973,"date":"2014-08-29T07:33:37","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T07:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=973"},"modified":"2014-08-29T07:33:37","modified_gmt":"2014-08-29T07:33:37","slug":"platini-wont-run-against-blatter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=973","title":{"rendered":"Platini won\u2019t run against Blatter"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><a href=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Platini.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-974\" alt=\"Platini\" src=\"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Platini.jpg\" width=\"108\" height=\"115\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div id=\"nrelate_flyout_placeholder\">\n<p>Michel Platini won\u2019t fight Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency, though he still hopes somebody will.<\/p>\n<p>The UEFA president decided on Thursday not to challenge Blatter in an election next May, insisting he was not dodging a battle with his former mentor.<\/p>\n<p>Platini denied FIFA critics a potentially bitter contest, but then urged more conflict within the Blatter-led executive committee.<\/p>\n<p>His decision, which was expected, leaves the 78-year-old Blatter clear to win a fifth presidential term \u2013 possibly unopposed for a third straight time.<\/p>\n<p>Platini will focus instead on being re-elected to lead European football in March and a probable FIFA candidacy in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018\u2019Now is not my time, not yet,\u2019\u2019 the 59-year-old Platini said at a news conference after meeting leaders of Europe\u2019s 54 football federations. \u2018\u2019I hope that somebody will oppose Mr. Blatter and nobody will oppose me for UEFA.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Platini, a FIFA vice president, then challenged his colleagues to be \u2018\u2019braver\u2019\u2019 standing up to Blatter\u2019s power.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018\u2019To bring ideas and want to change things and not just be sheep who always say yes,\u2019\u2019 Platini said through a translator.<\/p>\n<p>The former France great seemed likely to avoid a FIFA contest after a successful World Cup strengthened Blatter\u2019s position as president, which he has held since 1998.<\/p>\n<p>Blatter already has support from FIFA\u2019s other five continental confederations. Leaders of most of the 209 member countries have shown little desire for change as successful World Cups have raised FIFA cash reserves close to $1.5bn.<\/p>\n<p>Platini dismissed one description of a contest against Blatter as \u2018\u2019unwinnable.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u2018\u2019No, my choice was not based on who was running,\u2019\u2019 said Platini, who recalled beating another longtime sitting president, Lennart Johansson, for the UEFA job in 2007. \u2018\u2019So I can\u2019t be accused of being afraid of Mr. Blatter.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>UEFA members were meeting for the first time since they confronted Blatter in Brazil in June over his style of leadership and alleged corruption implicating FIFA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michel Platini won\u2019t fight Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency, though he still hopes somebody will. The UEFA president decided on Thursday not to challenge Blatter in an election next May, insisting he was not dodging a battle with his former mentor. Platini denied FIFA critics a potentially bitter contest, but then urged more conflict [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Platini.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-fH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":975,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973\/revisions\/975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}