Platini defends $2 million FIFA fee

UEFA President Michel Platini (R) congratulates FIFA President Sepp Blatter after he was re-elected at the 65th FIFA Congress in Zurich, Switzerland, in this file picture taken May 29, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

Platini told Le Monde that when years later he was asked to send a bill for money still due to him, he mistakenly remembered a contract salary sum of 500,000 Swiss francs a year rather than 300,000. He therefore sent a bill for a total of only two million francs for the four years in question.

Blatter and Platini were suspended for 90 days on Oct. 8 after Switzerland's attorney general's office initiated criminal proceedings against Blatter over the 2011 payment to Platini.

Platini played down the impact on his election chances of the debate over the 2011 payment.

"I don't think I've lost many votes, and people who know me know I can look at myself in the mirror. I'm bullet-proof," he said.

"I just hope I'm not going to be prevented from running. They're just upset that a footballer rather than a pure politician wants to run things. Well, I don't like losing. Above all when it's over an issue that isn't an issue."

Competing against Platini for the FIFA presidency are Jordanian Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein and former Trinidad and Tobago midfielder David Nakhid.

The president of Asian soccer, Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa of Bahrain, is also expected to do so before the October 26 deadline for the vote four months later.

FIFA was plunged into the worst crisis in its history with the indictment by US authorities on May 27 of 14 soccer officials and sports marketing executives. The US and Swiss authorities are running corruption investigations that include examining the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.