Final Judgment in Düsseldorf
Platini or Johansson?
52 European Football Associations, among them also the Ex-Yu FA's (except Montenegro), will vote the UEFA president in a secret ballot tomorrow, Friday 26th January in Düsseldorf. They have the choice between the current president Lennart Johansson and his challenger Michel Platini.
Neoliberalism vs. Socialism
The 77 year old Swede Lennart Johansson won the UEFA presidential elections in 1990 against his Swiss challenger Freddy Rumo and changed the most influential football association like no other president before. His most remarkable invention was the "Chmapions League", which was established in 1992. The Champions League became the most profitable source of income for UEFA. Therefore Lennart Johansson is also regarded as the man behind "globalization" in football, creating a new kind of economic perspective, resulting in a merge of world football & world business. Johansson is a patron of Franz Beckenbauer, who should have been his succcessor, but the Bayern München president refused to run for UEFA president this year and therefore Johansson decided to campaign once again for this post. The reason: Johansson stands for global market and neoliberalism - Platini campaigns for socialism and more influence of the smaller football associations in Europe.
What Platini wants to change ...
52 year old Platini wants to limit the power of the big football associations (especially the German DFB and the English, Spanish and Italian FA's), strengthen the smaller federations and make sure that the control of the economy on the sport becomes lower. The most controversial of Platini's ideas is to admit only three teams per country for the Champions League, which would provide more Champions League places for smaller football nations. Platini's second controversial idea was to boost the participants for the UEFA EURO championships from 16 to 24. The consequences would result in a general loss of power for the associations of the "Big 5" and a shift of perspective from economical dominance to devolpmental policy, especially for Eastern European football clubs and nations. It is therefore not a secret, that since Platini's official announcement of his presidential campaign back in March 2005, several Eastern European and other smaller football associations supported Platini's visions.
Who will win?
The biggest supporter of Lennart Johansson is the German football federation (DFB), which organized the 2006 World Cup thanks to their most influential advocate, 77 year old Johansson. To predict who will arise from the duel as a winner, is currently not possible. The choice is confidential, and only a few federations have confessed clearly to a side. It is not a big secret, that the president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, one of the most passionate opponents of Johansson since years, supports Platini. Therfeore some media also speculated, that Platini is merely a puppet of the powerful Swiss FIFA president. Nevertheless, many smaller European football nations would benefit from Platini's revolutionary changes and of course also the Football clubs and associtaions from Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia. Platini said in an interview, after arriving in Düsseldorf:"Something is in the air. I feel an atmosphere that the people believe that I will win." Let's hope that his intuition proves him right ...
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My fingers are crossed for Platini. :thumb:
Platini or Johansson?
52 European Football Associations, among them also the Ex-Yu FA's (except Montenegro), will vote the UEFA president in a secret ballot tomorrow, Friday 26th January in Düsseldorf. They have the choice between the current president Lennart Johansson and his challenger Michel Platini.
Neoliberalism vs. Socialism
The 77 year old Swede Lennart Johansson won the UEFA presidential elections in 1990 against his Swiss challenger Freddy Rumo and changed the most influential football association like no other president before. His most remarkable invention was the "Chmapions League", which was established in 1992. The Champions League became the most profitable source of income for UEFA. Therefore Lennart Johansson is also regarded as the man behind "globalization" in football, creating a new kind of economic perspective, resulting in a merge of world football & world business. Johansson is a patron of Franz Beckenbauer, who should have been his succcessor, but the Bayern München president refused to run for UEFA president this year and therefore Johansson decided to campaign once again for this post. The reason: Johansson stands for global market and neoliberalism - Platini campaigns for socialism and more influence of the smaller football associations in Europe.
What Platini wants to change ...
52 year old Platini wants to limit the power of the big football associations (especially the German DFB and the English, Spanish and Italian FA's), strengthen the smaller federations and make sure that the control of the economy on the sport becomes lower. The most controversial of Platini's ideas is to admit only three teams per country for the Champions League, which would provide more Champions League places for smaller football nations. Platini's second controversial idea was to boost the participants for the UEFA EURO championships from 16 to 24. The consequences would result in a general loss of power for the associations of the "Big 5" and a shift of perspective from economical dominance to devolpmental policy, especially for Eastern European football clubs and nations. It is therefore not a secret, that since Platini's official announcement of his presidential campaign back in March 2005, several Eastern European and other smaller football associations supported Platini's visions.
Who will win?
The biggest supporter of Lennart Johansson is the German football federation (DFB), which organized the 2006 World Cup thanks to their most influential advocate, 77 year old Johansson. To predict who will arise from the duel as a winner, is currently not possible. The choice is confidential, and only a few federations have confessed clearly to a side. It is not a big secret, that the president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, one of the most passionate opponents of Johansson since years, supports Platini. Therfeore some media also speculated, that Platini is merely a puppet of the powerful Swiss FIFA president. Nevertheless, many smaller European football nations would benefit from Platini's revolutionary changes and of course also the Football clubs and associtaions from Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia. Platini said in an interview, after arriving in Düsseldorf:"Something is in the air. I feel an atmosphere that the people believe that I will win." Let's hope that his intuition proves him right ...
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My fingers are crossed for Platini. :thumb:
