World Cup: Michel Platini claims 'trickery' over 1998 tournament draw

[davieG]

"A little trickery" was employed for the 1998 World Cup draw to ensure France and Brazil did not meet until the final, disgraced former Uefa president Michel Platini has claimed.

The French hosted and won their first World Cup 20 years ago, beating Brazil 3-0 in the final in Paris.

Former France captain Platini was on the tournament's organising committee.

"When we organised the schedule, we did a little trickery," he told radio station France Bleu Sport. 

"France-Brazil in the final, it was the dream of everyone.

"If we finished first in the group and Brazil finished first, we could not meet before the final."

He laughed as he went on: "We did not spend six years organising the World Cup to not do some little shenanigans. Do you think other World Cup hosts did not?"

Brazil and France were the top teams in the Fifa rankings heading into the tournament and were among the eight top-seeded teams.

Two days before the draw took take place, world governing body Fifa announced that holders Brazil would be allocated to Group A while France were in Group C.

It meant that if the two teams finished top they would be on opposite sides of the draw for the knockout stage.

Both made it through to the final at Stade de France where two goals from Zinedine Zidane and another from Emmanuel Petit gave the French a famous victory.

Platini and former Fifa counterpart Sepp Blatter were found guilty in 2015 of ethics breaches over a 2m Swiss Franc (£1.3m) "disloyal payment".

Platini was given an eight-year ban from all football-related activities - later reduced to four on appeal.

The 62-year-old has always maintained his innocence and in January it was reported he had taken the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

[Fox92]

First World Cup I remember too

 

And Platini eh. One of the greatest players ever but awful for his role afterwards.

[Nalis]

Not really a massive revelation I guess. Cant recall the reason given for it (I take it something to do with being the holders and hosts who automatically qualified at the time) but even as a 14 year old at the time I figured out they wouldnt meet until the final and felt it was a bit strange to determined the groups of both teams at the time...

[stripeyfox]

The draw has always been rigged to give the home team a leg up. The home side always gets an "easy" group and it wouldn't surprise me if the hosts and favorites are kept apart more often than not.

 

As for Platini, I'd like to hate him but the first tournament I can remember was Euro 1984 and in particular an absolute humdinger semi final against Portugal when him, Tigana and Didier Six oozed class and Platini scored a last minute extra time winner (I think). I think that was the first time football got me "wow"

 

 

Edited 18 May 2018 by stripeyfox

[stripeyfox]

 

Worth a watch if you have a spare 5 minutes. Commentary by Motty

[m4DD0gg]

Platini is a scum bag.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, stripeyfox said:

 

Worth a watch if you have a spare 5 minutes. Commentary by Motty

French number 12 was quality

[Kitchandro]

Platini was the guy who really wanted the World Cup to go to Qatar, enough said.

 

Total sleazebag.

[Dan]

Platini single handedly blew the theory of getting ex players into the governing bodies to pieces.

He's an absolute disgrace.

[Fox92]

12 hours ago, stripeyfox said:

 

Worth a watch if you have a spare 5 minutes. Commentary by Motty

Oh man, 39 seconds that turn and then through ball from Platini. Superb.

[CosbehFox]

I don’t understand the furore. There was about five world cups where the host and the champions were in opposite sides of the draw. This was just common organisation of the tournament. There’s no master plan behind it all

 

2006 was the same

[ozleicester]

all sport is rigged

[davieG]

All rigging is sport.