Michel Platini has formally withdrawn his candidacy for the Fifa presidency and said he will dedicate himself to overturning his eight-year ban.
The Uefa president, banned by Fifa’s ethics committee from all football-related activity for eight years over a 2million Swiss franc payment (£1.3million) he received from Fifa president Sepp Blatter in 2011, said he had originally received 150 declarations of support when he announced he would run but had now been forced to pull out of the election on February 26 - it is also unclear whether any appeal process would have been completed by that date.
The move by the 60-year-old will clear the path for the other five candidates in the race to succeed Blatter as there was still the possibility that Platini could still stand if he overturned the ban on appeal.
Platini told L’Equipe: “I will not present myself as president of Fifa. I withdraw my candidacy. I cannot, I do not have the time or the means to go the voters, to meet people, to fight against the others.
“By removing myself, I make the choice to dedicate myself to my defence against a dossier where there is no mention of corruption, of falsification, forgery, where there is nothing any more.”
