Three years on from his ascent to the top post in European football, Michel Platini jetted into Malta yesterday afternoon ahead of the UEFA Executive Committee meeting, to be staged at the Grand Hotel Excelsior tomorrow and on Friday.
The UEFA president was greeted outside the VIP lounge of the Malta International Airport by Joe Mifsud, the Malta FA president and UEFA vice-president, Clyde Puli, the Parliamentary Secretary for Youth and Sport, and Peter Fenech, the MFA vice-president.
Hords of photographers and TV crews gathered at the airport to capture the arrival of Platini who, at
Dr Mifsud's request, accepted to take part in a short question-and-answer session with the journalists present.
"I hope you don't ask me about Juventus," Platini, who enjoyed a trophy-laden spell with the Turin giants during his illustrious playing career, jokingly remarked in Italian before fielding the first question.
Invited to outline the major decisions and developments that have defined his first three years as UEFA president, Platini said: "We have had many.
"As you well know, I was elected to implement my programme and after seven months, we had done that. Then, we had the infinite story that is the problems of football which are always very important.
"I had decided to tweak the Champions League, to give more democracy to the competition. We revamped the Europa League, expanded the European Nations Cup to 24 teams (from 2016) and we are also working on the concept of financial fair play for clubs.
"We are also tackling several issues with FIFA, the leagues, the clubs, the national associations and the European Commission. We have so many things to do."
Platini, who earlier this month told France Football that he will make a decision about his future as UEFA president before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, also emphasised the importance of adopting the Financial Fair Play concept which was endorsed by the Executive Committee last September.
"The Financial Fair Play concept is very important for the well-being of clubs," Platini said.
"We believe that for clubs to survive they can't spend more than they earn and the Executive Committee has agreed to introduce regulations to reach this aim."
UEFA's Financial Fair Play concept is aimed at improving the financial fairness in European competitions, as well as the long-term stability of European club football.
The proposed measures include an obligation for clubs whose turnover is over a certain threshold, over a period of time, to balance their books or break even. Under the concept, clubs cannot repeatedly spend more than their generated revenues.
At this week's Exco meeting, UEFA's top officials will also hear an update on the experiment with five match officials which is being carried out in this season's Europa League matches.
Platini, the driving force behind this experiment, is convinced that the addition of two assistant referees helps to curb refereeing mistakes, especially those emanating from incidents in the penalty area.
"Having four extra eyes is better, it certainly helps to reduce mistakes," Platini said.
"We speak a lot about refereeing but we also have to recognise that football has changed a lot over the years. If I committed a handball offence in the box 20 years ago, probably nobody would have noticed but nowadays it's different because there are so many television cameras filming the match and these expose every refereeing mistake.
"If we look back at the famous France vs Ireland match (World Cup 2010 play-off), the referee didn't see what Thierry Henry had done (Henry handled the ball before setting up William Gallas for the decisive goal). I believe that the best way to improve refereeing is by having more match officials monitoring the game.
"It's also more feasible than telling a national association to spend €200,000 on television cameras. Personally, I believe that the human element (in refereeing) is better than technology."
"This (refereeing) is not a UEFA issue. It's also a concern for FIFA and the International FA Board (the game's lawmakers)."