The new UEFA President has made the much of the need to widen entry to the top level competitions and his opposition to the transformation of our game from a sport to a business is well known. At the time of his election in January he said, "Football is a game before it is a product, a sport before it is a market and a show before it is a business".
Last week he wrote to the heads of government and pleaded for their help in facing the threat of "the malign and ever-present influence of money".
He argued that governments "represent the last hope for a healthy and balanced future for European football". He made reference to the huge social and cultural benefits to society made by football as a sport rather than as a business.
Platini, in common with millions of fans, fears that the big clubs, the G14 group in particular, will block his hopes of democratisation to protect their selfish interests. "Money has never been the ultimate objective of football: the main purpose has always been to win trophies. For the first time, we may be entering an era in which financial profit alone will be the measure of sporting success."
He urges that sport should receive special protection in the Reform Treaty to resist the "rampant commercialism" which assails the game. "Millions of football fans, for whom I speak, are calling on
The gap between the astronomical wealth available to the elite (increasingly in the hands of foreign ownership) and the hand to mouth existence of clubs such as Motherwell does nothing to develop the sporting and community based ideals on which the game was founded.
Platini deserves our wholehearted support.
The full text of his letter is here.