French legend Michel Platini has been elected as the new UEFA President. Platini defeated rival Lennart Johansson, who has held the post since 1990, in an election in Dusseldorf.
Johansson was seeking a four year extension to his term but lost to Platini, 3 time European footballer of the year and Vice President of the French football federation, by four votes. Johansson, 77, is also vice president of the all powerful FIFA, and had lost an election to Sepp Blatter in 1998.
What does Platini’s election mean for Europe’s premier competition, the Champions League ? One, the number of clubs from England, Spain and Italy might reduce. Platini has earlier said that he wanted only 3 instead of the current four which come from these nations. There will be a greater number of clubs from the smaller nations, so it might be truly become a ”European Cup”.
But at the same time, we run the risk of reducing the quality of the competition. I mean seeing a Lazio or Roma go out and the likes of KR, Flora or Molde ( no disrespect to these clubs- I just took an example). It might mean making things easy for the heavyweights as the small clubs will just be fodder for them. It might also make the group stages useless as nobody would like United or Chelsea playing aganst a bunch of anonymous clubs.
Much as one would like to argue that the smaller clubs will learn with time, I personally don’t think that will happen. When you play day in and day out against weaker teams, and suddenly have to face a powerhouse in Europe, your style of play needs to change, and time isn’t adequate for you to raise your game to another level and win against the bigger teams
This might induce the G-14 to make their breakaway competition and if something like that does happen, it will cripple UEFA . Their stranghold over European football will reduce , and finances go for a toss.
Platini once reportedly advocated that tackling should be banned. I wonder what his stance on that issue will be now 🙂
UEFA are currently a very powerful organisation. Johansson is against any changes to be made.Kinda like saying ” If it ain’t broke, why fix it”. Platini has to reconcile the dual tasks of making the Champions League more ”European” and at the same time ensuring that it doesn’t lose its sheen.
The post will not be a bed of roses for the Frenchman. He can make or break the fortunes of UEFA. Let us see how he performs.