France soccer great Michel Platini on Friday said “a little trickery” in the 1998 World Cup draw ensured his home nation would avoid playing Brazil until the final which it won in Paris.
Not so, said Sepp Blatter, who conducted the draw in Marseille in December 1997 as then-FIFA general secretary.
Almost 20 years after France hosted and won the World Cup, the two men who organized it recalled very differently if Les Bleus were helped by a fixed draw to dodge playing defending champions Brazil for as long as possible.
“When we organized the calendar, we did a little trickery,” Platini, who led the French organizing committee for several years, told radio station France Bleu.
Platini said it ensured France and Brazil would be in opposite halves of the knockout draw if each won their group.
Indeed, Brazil were top-seeded in Group A — by right as the 1994 winners — and France were placed in Group C before the draw. Both topped their groups and advanced to the final won 3-0 by France.
However, Blatter said this was standard FIFA practice before and after 1998 to prepare the draw like this — setting up a potential dream final between hosts and defending champions.
“This is absolutely normal what has been done,” Blatter said in a telephone interview, recalling the fifth and final World Cup he prepared as FIFA’s top administrator before becoming president.
“I am very surprised that Platini came out and said this. There was not any magouille,” Blatter said, citing the French word used by Platini, which could also imply corruption. “There is nothing strange.”
Platini’s comments suggesting he was involved in underhand behavior seemed unusual after almost three years of defending his name from allegations of financial misconduct.
FIFA’s ethics committee in 2015 banned Platini and Blatter, although both vigorously denied wrongdoing.
Blatter authorized FIFA in 2011 to pay Platini US$2 million in non-contracted salary for his work as a presidential adviser after the 1998 World Cup until 2002. The case also involved pension contributions requested by Platini, which he was not entitled to, and could have paid him more than US$1 million.
Blatter said that French media was asking of Platini: “Why the hell do you say this now?”
The 2006 World Cup was the last time that the defending champions were pre-allocated to a group in the draw. At the 2010 World Cup draw, hosts South Africa were sure to be in Group A and defending champions Italy entered the draw with the other seven top-seeded nations.
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