The man who authored the document questioning Michel Platini’s credentials has quit Fifa.
A Fifa statement has confirmed that Thomas Renggli resigned on September 1 after Uefa complained about an alleged smear campaign against its president and raised the matter with FIFA’s ethics investigator.
Renggli’s anonymous piece, entitled ‘Platini: Skeletons in the closet‘, suggested the Frenchman’s links to Qatar would not make him an appropriate president of FIFA, was circulated anonymously to Swiss and German newspapers, one of which, Welt am Sonntag, was the first to publish it.
Renggli’s article stated that Platini “was one of Europe’s most skilful players of all time. But is he great enough to be FIFA President? Anyone taking one look in the direction of Qatar can have only one answer: No.”
It later emerged that Renggli, a former editor of FIFA’s weekly magazine was the author.
Platini voted for Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup, although he has always denied he was told to do so by former French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
There have also been questions over Platini’s son, Laurent, who started working for Qatar Sports Investments, an arm of the Qatari government and owners of Paris Saint-Germain, in November 2011.
UEFA’s French president is favourite to succeed Sepp Blatter at the head of the world game after an extraordinary congress next February 26.
