How could a small Gulf country snatch the FIFA World Cup from the big favorite United States? It was during a lunch at the Elysée that the vote would have swung in favor of Qatar. At the end of 2010, it brought together President Sarkozy, Sheikh Tamim, Crown Prince of Qatar, and Michel Platini, then head of UEFA. Did Nicolas Sarkozy offer the voice of the former glory of French football, deemed capable of influencing other voters, to the Qataris in exchange for certain counterparties? The ex-president has always denied… As for Michel Platini, this Qatargate affair seems to worry him.
Platini furious at being taken into custody
According to revelations from Mediapart, Michel Platini was received at the Elysée in March 2018. Accompanied by one of his friends, the journalist Jacques Vendroux, he came to seek the help of President Macron, to whom he gave a note on his legal situation.
A year later, Platini is taken into custody. Wiretapped, he lets his anger burst against Emmanuel Macron during a telephone conversation, in which he threatens to leave France: “Either I’m cleared completely or I’m out! Goodbye, and it’s over.” He also contacts Jacques Vendroux, who agrees to try to talk about it in private with E. Macron, after an interview on FranceInfo. The journalist will not finally have the opportunity, but he discusses it with the sports adviser to the president. A conversation he relates to Platini as follows: “I simply said to him: ‘Fuck, there, it’s hot, what you did to Michel: police custody, etc. He doesn’t take it very well. Even very badly.’ He said to me: ‘Yes, I know.’ That’s all.”
“Dear Platoche”, “well done, thank you, and come back”
Was the message received? Four months later, in front of a very moved guest, Thomas Sotto broadcast on RTL a few sentences recorded by Emmanuel Macron for his “Dear Platoche”: “You have made entire generations dream, including mine. And so thank you for that. I know that the last few years have been hard, that the wounds have sometimes been deep, that the feeling of injustice, too, is here. And basically, I had a message, it’s this fan message. Well done, thank you, and come back. It would make me happy.”
For Elise Van Beneden, the president of the Anticor association, who has brought a civil action in this case, this is a declaration “unsuited to the mission of a President of the Republic“. She did.”no doubt that justice interpreted it as a form of pressure“. “Complementary investigation” contacted the Elysée about this episode without receiving a response, but Mediapart obtained this one: the president would just have liked to send a friendly message to the footballer.
Excerpt from “Qatar 2022: a French scandal?”, a document to see in “Complément d’Enquête” on October 13, 2022.
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