Platini worried by scale of clubs’ debts

UEFA president Michel Platini has spoken of his disbelief at the continuing scale of debt in football at a time when the world is in the grip of an economic crisis.

“People all over the world are tightening their belts just now, so I cannot understand why football clubs continue to suffer such heavy losses,” the Frenchman said in Milan, where he was collecting the Giacinto Facchetti International Prize for services to football.

“You cannot spend more than you earn. Professional football is currently losing €1.4 billion a year. And I am the mug that said that this has to stop,” added the 56-year-old.

UEFA’s financial fair play rules have been brought in by Platini as a means of stopping clubs from racking up too much debt.

Failure to comply could lead to clubs being banned from European competition from season 2014-15.

Platini also predicted that Lionel Messi will beat his own record of three consecutive Ballon d’Or, won in 1983, ‘84 and ‘85.

“Records are there to be broken. I was 27 when I joined Juventus, but if I had gone there at 13, as Messi was when he went to Barcelona, then I might have won more,” he said.

Platini said that he didn’t believe FIFA president Sepp Blatter would accept having extra officials at matches.

“I don’t know if Blatter will ever experiment with additional assistants,” said Platini, who many see as a natural heir to the controversial Swiss when he eventually retires.

“Maybe he is not convinced, it wasn’t his idea...I think it is a good idea, I am against technology in sport.

“Justice does not come from television cameras.”

The Giacinto Facchetti prize, inaugurated by renowned Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, is named after the former Inter player and president, who died in 2006.

Former winners of the prize are Younes Khalef, an Asian Cup winner with Iraq, and Milan and Italy legend Paolo Maldini.