Platini: The downfall of man who would have been FIFA king (I)
Just imagine for a moment that, next month, hosts France win the European Championship.
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And that their star midfielder scores a remarkable nine goals in the tournament, including two hat-tricks, as well as scoring in the final.
And that he is the team's captain.
And that this season, he has already won the league championship in Italy with Juventus, as well as a European title for his club, along with the Ballon d'Or.
Which he won last year. And which he will win again next season. Along with the European Cup.
That is what Michel Platini achieved in 1984, when, in his pomp, he inspired his country to their first ever major tournament title.
Consider all this for a moment, how sensational that would be, and it is easy to understand why, among the increasingly crowded ranks of the FIFA rogue's gallery, it is his downfall that saddens the hearts of many football lovers the most.
Unlike former President Sepp Blatter, or the other career politicians and bureaucrats that made up most of the governing body's other pantomime villains; (Jack Warner, Chuck Blazer, Jeffrey Webb and Jerome Valcke, to name just a few), Platini graced the game he loved.
Most fans over the age of 40 will associate the playmaker - nicknamed 'Le Roi' - with his captivating performances for club and country during his mid-1980s peak, when he was widely regarded as the best player on the planet.
Sadly, for those who never saw Platini's sublime skills on the pitch, or were too young to truly appreciate them, the end of his nine-year reign as UEFA president means he will now become just another symbol of Fifa's fall into disrepute.
For others, however, the end of his political career is to be mourned.
Speaking from Mexico City where FIFA is preparing to hold its annual congress later this week, Fifa's British vice president David Gill said Platini's resignation, after he lost his fight to clear his name for breaching FIFA ethics rules at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), was "a loss to the game".
"He brought the clubs and UEFA together," he said. "He was an innovator. He had knowledge, ideas and personality. He surrounded himself with exceptional people at UEFA and had great relationships with the coaches. He was a man of humour and has a sense of fun. He was an excellent UEFA president, in my opinion."
How quickly things can change. Eighteen months ago I interviewed Platini at St George's Park as he toured the training facilities.
To see him that November day, with Football Association staff hanging on his every word and whim, to observe FA chairman Greg Dyke so thrilled to play host, was to see Platini at the height of his powers as a politician.
Platini even felt confident enough to tell me, with typical disregard for the doubters, that he had "no regrets" about his controversial decision to vote for Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup, despite the allegations of corruption and human rights abuses directed against the country, and the havoc a winter tournament would play with the calendars of the European leagues and clubs he was meant to represent.
Taking football's showpiece event to the Arab world for the first time was, he insisted, an honourable choice. And his FA hosts, despite having previously cursed the Qatar vote and its ramifications, simply smiled and nodded.
Who better, the FA asked themselves, than a man who, having excelled as player and coach, showed his administrative clout by organising the 1998 World Cup in France? Who better than a man who had reigned over European football and its 54 different national associations since 2007, when he had surprisingly beat the incumbent Lennart Johansson?
With the exception of his stubborn opposition to goal-line technology, Platini had established himself as an innovator.
He challenged the status quo, meddling with the qualification process for the European Championships to increase it to 24 teams, and proposing a pan-European format for the 2020 tournament.
He gained credit for backing proposals designed to increase the number of home-grown players, for increasing diversity in the Champions League by making it easier for clubs from smaller countries to qualify, and at least appeared to be trying to curb over-spending through his controversial Financial Fair Play (FFP) reforms, although they were eventually watered down amid significant criticism.
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Who better than a man who, at the time we met at St George's Park that day, was busy distancing himself from the tainted Blatter reign, demanding that his old friend honour his pledge to walk away after a fourth term as president. He was the obvious heir apparent, and the FA, like many others, intended to cling tightly to the Frenchman's coat-tails.
That November day in 2014, Platini was still considering whether he should stand against Blatter the following year.
A few weeks later, having accepted football's long-serving overlord remained unbeatable, Platini decided instead to back the sole challenger, Prince Ali.
Platini voted for Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup having initially suggested he would vote for the US
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Then, last summer, came FIFA's implosion. The dawn raids in Zurich on the eve of the congress. The defiant re-election of Blatter, before his dramatic decision to step down a few days later amid the corruption investigations.
Sensing his chance, and with Blatter out of the way, Platini declared he would stand in 2016, and again, seemed the obvious choice, the overwhelming favourite. The FA rushed to back him, even before he had issued a manifesto.
But then, finally, it all caught up with him. A Swiss criminal investigation into what prosecutors called a "disloyal payment" that he had received from Blatter in 2011 for advisory services a decade earlier, dragged him into FIFA’s turmoil.
Described as "between a witness and a suspect" by the Swiss attorney general, he was suspended by FIFA, then banned. It was a scandal from which he never managed to escape.
Perhaps it should have come as no surprise.
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