The FA has suspended its support for UEFA President Michel Platini's candidacy for the FIFA presidency, according to Martyn Ziegler of the PA. The move follows a UEFA meeting on Thursday where FA officials were given further information surrounding a £1.35M payment to Platini in '11 from FIFA President Sepp Blatter which has led to both men "being provisionally banned pending an ethics committee hearing." An FA statement said, "As a result of learning this information, the FA board has this morning concluded that it must suspend its support for Mr Platini's candidature for the Fifa presidency until the legal process has been concluded and the position is clear" (PA, 10/16). The BBC reported Platini said that the money was "an unpaid additional salary due from the time he served as Blatter's adviser" between '98 and '02. UEFA's 54 members met in Switzerland to discuss the issue and afterward the association issued a statement saying Platini should have the chance "to clear his name." It also called for investigators to "work rapidly" and decide "on the merits of the case by, at the latest, mid-November 2015" (BBC, 10/16).
SUPPORT SHIFTS: In London, Owen Gibson reported many European FIFA members are "expected to now back" Asian Football Confederation President Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, the Bahrainian who "has now resolved to stand and has longstanding close links" to Platini and UEFA. Sheikh Salman, AFC president since '13, is expected to announce his candidacy next week. However, "there also remains the possibility" that a European candidate such as Dutch FA (KNVB) President Michael van Praag "may decide to stand" (GUARDIAN, 10/16).
