FA Board unanimously support Platini's bid to become FIFA president

The Football Association will continue to back Michel Platini’s bid to become the new president of Fifa — despite his implication in the corruption scandal that has rocked world football’s governing body. 

Platini, 60, has been thrown into the eye of the storm after it emerged he received £1.35million from current Fifa president Sepp Blatter back in 2011 for work he supposedly carried out between 1998 and 2002.

However, following a meeting at Wembley on Wednesday, the FA released a statement announcing they are “still of the view” that the Uefa chief is a good candidate to replace Blatter. 

“In July, the FA Board decided unanimously to support Michel Platini if he intended to stand for the presidency of Fifa,” the statement began.

"We did so because we thought he was an excellent president of Uefa and could bring those same leadership qualities to Fifa. We are still of that view.”

English football’s top brass, though, did add that the events of recent days do need to be fully examined. 

“We are following the ongoing investigation initiated by the Swiss Attorney General with which Mr Platini is co-operating with in full,” they added.

"We also recognise that Mr Platini has contacted the Fifa Ethics Committee inviting them to look into the matter and to interview him.

"As we said back in July, the most important matter is the urgent reform of Fifa. We believe the whole structure of Fifa needs to be fundamentally changed and we are committed to our efforts to ensure this happens."

Platini has said that it took a 11 years for him to receive the payment because Fifa “couldn’t afford” to pay him at the time he undertook the work.