Platini calls ministry to insist he’s clean

Paris: Uefa president Michel Platini, freshly embroiled in the Fifa scandal over a 1.8-million euro (Dh7.4 million) payment he received from president Sepp Blatter, called the French sports ministry to insist he had done nothing wrong. “He has the feeling he is clean and he wanted to say it to me again,” Secretary of State Thierry Braillard told French sports daily L’Equipe on Saturday. “He explained everything. I fully trust his honesty and his determination to become Fifa president,” he added. Blatter is under criminal investigation by Swiss authorities but remains in office ahead of a scheduled February election.