FIFA: Michel Platini officially withdraws his candidacy for the presidential election on 26/02/2016

"I do not present myself for the presidency of FIFA. I withdraw my candidacy. I cannot and do not have the time or means to go to voters, meet people, to fight with others. By removing myself, I make the choice to dedicate myself to my defense against a dossier where we no longer talk of corruption, forgery, where there is nothing," stated Michel Platini, president of the UEFA, on 07/01/07/2016.

"This is a timing issue, but not only. How to win an election when one is prevented from campaigning? Yet when Blatter resigned, I received 150 declarations of support. 100 official letters from federations and 50 promises. All this in two days. Today, I have to take care of all the actions, and follow the procedures. Besides, the motivations have yet to be made clear (against me); there will be, behind the CAS (appeal) and the committee chaired by Domenico Scala (Chairman of the FIFA Audit & Compliance Committee) those who say that I have falsified accounts. This does not show up very well. I have fought as I have always done, but my life has not given me the opportunity to compete (in the…