Very strange conception of justice than that of Michel Platini.
Entangled in the affair of the attribution of the World Cup to Qatar when he was president of UEFA, the former number 10 of the Blues, under the blow of a preliminary investigation for "corruption" led by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), carried out intense lobbying work with Emmanuel Macron between 2017 and 2019, via his friend Jacques Vendroux, the very influential sports journalist close to the President of the Republic.
And the least we can say is that the wiretaps ordered by the PNF on Michel Platini's phone, and revealed by Mediapart on Tuesday, are very instructive.
They indeed highlight the way in which he wanted to access Emmanuel Macron in an attempt to influence the course of the judicial investigations which target him in Switzerland and France.
Leave, if necessary, to use blackmail and brandish the threat of exile if the president - guarantor of the independence of justice, let us remember - refused to intercede in his favor.
"Or I am completely cleared, or I break [from France], goodbye and it's over".
Following this blackmail aimed at Macron on the way he was treated in the Qatar 2022 affair, Platini was publicly supported by the president @mediaparthttps://t.co/MxUzj2FeNZ pic.twitter.com/T5ar7amotY
— Yann Philippin (@yphilippin) April 5, 2022
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Platini seeks the attentive ear of the Elysée
In December 2017, when he was questioned by the courts as an assisted witness in the context of the "deferred payment" of 1.8 million euros granted in his favor by Sepp Blatter (case heard in Bern by the public prosecutor's office Swiss federal government and who will end his career at UEFA), Michel Platini is worried.
He then contacted Michel Debaq, a high magistrate close to Emmanuel Macron, via a common acquaintance (Jean-Pierre Chanal, at the time deputy director general of Jean-Claude Gaudin's services at the town hall of Marseille) to see what that it is possible to do for him with the President of the Republic.
After this first meeting with Michel Debaq, Michel Platini seems reassured.
In the telephone debrief he makes of his interview with the high magistrate, he lets go of Chanal: “I saw our friend Michel [Debacq] a bit.
We will counterattack.
Well, if he finds a way that Berne decides to drop the calbutes on me and that he closes the case, but it's not easy.
(…) So my only appointment is with the President of the Republic at the beginning of January so that he may help me do something.
".
“He's a guy who can send messages […] to the Élysée before you go […].
He really has what it takes as starters there!
“, confirms Jean-Pierre Chanal.
In anticipation of his interview with Macron, Platini then turned to his friend, the journalist Jacques Vendroux, who knew the President of the Republic well.
On the phone, the former sports director of Radio France reassures him about how things will go with Macron.
Jacques Vendroux reassures Michel Platini
"You'll see, it's going to be very simple.
He will say to you: "Here, what can I do for you? You represent the heritage of France", etc.
.
I'm not worried at all."
At the end of the line, Platini then indicated that he would like to give the president "the letter" on his legal problems.
Because in the meantime, the PNF has searched the homes of Michel Platini, who is then auditioned in stride.
The meeting finally took place on March 8, 2018 at the Elysée.
And if until then the palace had denied that Platini's legal situation had been discussed, faced with the wiretapping of Mediapart, the Elysée backpedals and admits that a "document summarizing Mr. Platini's legal situation was given to the adviser in charge President's Sports" after the game.
Temporarily cleared in the deferred payment case before being sent back to court, Platini then received public support from Macron on the Téléfoot program.
The latter “welcomes” the decision of the Swiss courts and “wants Michel Platini to regain his full place” in football.
And this while he is still under investigation by the French justice system and suspended for four years by FIFA.
Platini and the threat of exile if he is not cleared
Later, in June 2019, when he was summoned to the headquarters of the judicial police in Nanterre for questioning by the police officers of the anti-corruption office (OCLCIFF) to talk about the famous 2010 lunch at the Elysée with Sarkozy and the Emir of Qatar, Platini learns of his placement in police custody.
Furious against the "asshole" (one of the two PNF prosecutors in charge of the investigation at the time) who placed him in GAV, and when he has just learned of the search of his son's home Laurent, Platoche asks his communication adviser by telephone to write "a short letter" to the address of Cyril Mourin, President Macron's sports adviser.
“Something saying that we are starting to have our ass full of it (…) And I will put the knife to his throat [à Emmanuel Macron], I will say to him: “Either it happens like that, or I am completely whitewashed, or I'm out, goodbye and it's over. Listen to me, you killed me."
»
Here again, Jacques Vendroux enters the scene.
The very influential journalist, who has just landed an exclusive interview with the president for France Info, promises Platini "to nab him [Macron] face to face" to avoid "bitch tongues".
"So, I'll try to talk to him about you," he adds.
The current editorial writer for Europe 1 ultimately does not achieve his ends and explains to Platini that he "simply said to Mourin", the president's sports adviser, "Damn it's hot what you did to Michel.
custody, etc.
He doesn't take it very well.
Even very badly”.
Macron's nice message of support for Platoche
Questioned by Mediapart, the Elysée affirms that Macron "was not informed of this exchange between his adviser and Jacques Vendroux".
If Platini was never able to speak directly to the president about his problems, he nevertheless received a nice message of support from Macron a few months later, on November 7, 2019, on the airwaves of RTL.
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“Dear Michel, dear Platoche (…) I know that the last few years have been hard, that the wounds have sometimes been deep, that the feeling of injustice is also there.
And basically, I had a message, it's this message from an admirer, this message of thanks, and this message which consists in telling you, you still have plenty of things to bring to French football and to young French people.
[…] So congratulations, thank you and come back, it would make me happy.
»
To date, while the PNF continues its investigation into the awarding of the 2022 World Cup, Michel Platini has no longer been invited to answer questions from the new investigating judges Marc Sommerer and Virginie Tilmont.
Last November, on the other hand, the former glory of Juve was sent back to Swiss justice for "fraud" alongside his best enemy Sepp Blatter.
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Soccer
michelle platini
World Cup 2022
Emmanuel Macron
Sport