Lausanne (AFP)

"I'll be back": Michel Platini, whose four-year suspension will end on Monday, aims to return to football but few seem ready to once again make room for the former boss of UEFA.

Exceptional midfielder, conductor then coach of the Blues, the grandson of Italian immigrant had then become a leading leader, seizing the mighty UEFA in 2007.

Adunked by Sepp Blatter, he was preparing to succeed the Swiss at the head of Fifa, after long gnawing his brakes.

But the seemingly irresistible rise of the double semi-finalist of the World Cup (1982 and 1986) broke with a crash in September 2015: for a payment without a written and late contract of 2 million Swiss francs from Blatter to Platini, the two men were suspended 8 years by the internal justice of Fifa.

The suspension of Platini "from any activity related to football" was then reduced to 6 years on appeal and 4 years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. That of Blatter has gone from 8 to 6 years.

The decision is akin to a professional death sentence for Platini: the former captain of the Blues, who had to let go of the head of UEFA, could not run for the presidency of FIFA where his former right hand, Gianni Infantino was finally elected in February 2016 and re-elected last June.

The Swiss courts also opened criminal proceedings in September against Blatter and Platini, the latter under the status of assisted witness. But in May 2018, the public prosecutor of the confederation acknowledged that there was no evidence "sufficient" to prosecute Platini, what to justify according to his Swiss lawyer, the cancellation of the suspension.

- create a "Platini jurisprudence" -

As a last resort, Platini also appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, hoping to create a "Platini jurisprudence", he said Thursday in the daily Le Monde, because, he wonders , "how can they stop someone from working in football?"

The long crossing of the French desert now 64 years old will end Monday. From then on, he will be able to consider regaining a role in football.

"I will come back, I do not know where, I do not know how," the former Juventus strategist assured the Swiss RTS channel recently. "I can not stay on a suspension, even if it's a suspension made by morons".

"I received many proposals, foot calls, to be a consultant, to make the Euro, the World Cup," he assured the World.

But beyond that, "Platoche", a nickname that he does not like, can he still find a place of fall while few, within the authorities, still see him a future?

"Where do you see a base for Platini?" Asked a world football executive. Answer: "Nowhere".

"He says he wants to come back but I did not hear anything concrete," said one of his former relatives.

While the mandate of Christmas Le Graët will expire in 2021, can the presidency of the French Football Federation, interest it?

"Many people are already talking to me about it," Platini reacted on Thursday at L'Equipe.fr. "Some friends advise me to go there, others tell me: + What is the point of being president of the FFF when we were UEFA president? + But even that deadline seems far away. I have not really thought about it yet.

Le Graet repeated to him on Thursday that he would rather see Didier Deschamps, the current coach of the Blues, to succeed him: "I promised Didier, so I'm annoyed.In general, I try to keep my promises" .

If he rejects the idea of ​​returning to UEFA, his current president Aleksander Ceferin "could support Platini" for the election to the presidency of Fifa in 2023, according to a member of the proceedings. The Slovenian, who "does not support" Gianni Infantino and has ambitions rather in his country, could then use the French as "megaphones to destabilize" the current president of Fifa, former man of confidence of Platini.

© 2019 AFP