Ex-UEFA chief Michel Platini, flanked by his lawyer William Bourdon, talks to the media as he leaves the Central Office for Combating Corruption and Financial and Tax Crimes after being arrested in connection with a criminal investigation into the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, in Nanterre, west of Paris in the early hours of June 19, 2019. - The banned ex-UEFA chief Michel Platini was freed from French custody Wednesday, an AFP journalist said, after several hours of questioning in connection with a criminal investigation into the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. "He is no longer in custody," William Bourdon, the lawyer of the French football legend, said shortly before 1:00 am. There had been "a lot of fuss over nothing", he added. (Photo by Zakaria ABDELKAFI / AFP)
Platini, a former France captain, was stopped from partaking in all football-related activities in 2015 for receiving a two-million Swiss franc (1.8 million euros, $2 million) payment from ex-FIFA chief Sepp Blatter, who was suspended for six years.
“I will be back. I don’t know where, I don’t know how. I can’t stay on the suspension, even if it’s a suspension made by idiots,” Platini said.
“I was a victim of a form of a plot, yes, totally, between those at FIFA and those at the Swiss public ministry. There was an agreement between FIFA and them to sack me. I’m not going to say it was a plot by the Swiss state,” the 64-year-old added.
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