Uefa presidential election:The Uefa presidential election descended into acrimony and recrimination last night after the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter, delivered a remarkable public snub to the incumbent, Lennart Johansson, declaring his support for the challenger and favourite Michel Platini.
Blatter's highly unusual intervention, effectively a declaration of no confidence in the man who has led Uefa for 17 years, drew a furious response from Johansson, who accused Blatter of "wheeling and dealing" and betraying their friendship.
Speaking at Johansson's invitation at the opening of the Uefa congress, Blatter said he had "a sympathy" for Platini and cited his "right as Fifa president" to intervene. Johansson reacted angrily to what was a transparent attempt to undermine his chances in today's election.
"I think he (Blatter) is wheeling and dealing, going right and then left, having one opinion on Monday then another on Tuesday. He's making headlines. That's not friendship, that's far from it," the Swede said.
Blatter's decision to defy protocol and declare for Platini was a show of strength from the most powerful man in world football and lent support to the growing consensus among national association chiefs here that the Frenchman will win today's secret ballot. If he does he will have achieved a feat few in the singular world of football politics have managed. The lesson from Fifa under Jules Rimet (1921-1954) and Joao Havelange (1974-1998), let alone the International Olympic Committee under Juan Antonio Samaranch, is that ageing administrators tend not to lose elections. Johansson (77) may be about to buck that trend spectacularly.
At 51, Platini is no longer the gilded youth who illuminated world football for France and Juventus in the 1980s, but in a two-man race against a septuagenarian he is a stripling and that relative youth has been his biggest asset in this campaign.
For all the political currents circulating among delegates from the 52 member associations gathered here, there is little antipathy towards Johansson. He is credited with having stabilised the European game, satisfied the rapacious commercial appetites of clubs with the Champions League, tended the grassroots and established Uefa as a significant counter to the power of Blatter.
What the Swede has not done, however, is go gracefully, something he promised many FA chiefs he would do two years ago. Many here would rather have seen a coronation than an election, which will inevitably create winners and losers and upset the relative unity of the past decade.
Johansson's pledge to retire, perhaps to the post of honorary president, appeared to clear the way for Platini or another playing giant, Franz Beckenbauer, to succeed him. The latter's interest was one of the reason's Dusseldorf was selected to host this congress, but after Beckenbauer decided that running the 2006 World Cup and looking after his endorsements was enough to occupy him, Platini set about garnering support.
Already a powerful figure as a member of Fifa's executive committee, he built his campaign on his playing credibility and a manifesto aimed at the eastern European member nations that emerged from the break-up of the Soviet Union.
Promising to look after their interests, most notably by reducing the number of Champions League places granted to the established leagues, Platini has moved closer to victory than looked likely even three months ago, and Blatter's dramatic intervention here on behalf of his former special adviser has persuaded many a new president will be appointed today.
