Michel Platini visits Albania

When the French candidate for the UEFA throne, Michel Platini, visited Albania on November 8, 2006, to participate in the inauguration ceremony of a completed FIFA program in Albania, he also had a second agenda in his mind. He had to secure the vote of Armand Duka, the president of Albanian Football Federation (FSHF) for the upcoming UEFA presidential elections.
The 3-times Golden Ball winner, enthusiastic of the atmosphere he found in Tirana, “Like nowhere else!” were his words, allowed himself a joke in front of the media, while addressing Mr. Duka.
“If Mr. Duka doesn’t vote for me, then I will never return to Albania,” said the French football legend, therefore openly declaring the real goal of his visit to Albania. Indeed, two months later, Mr. Platini was elected chief of UEFA, by winning the election thanks to the votes of the small countries.
According to a pre-elections poll by French Football magazine, Albania was to support Platini, however, according to the German “Bild”; Albania was one of the countries to vote for Johansson, the former UEFA president. Yet, only Mr. Duka knows for sure which candidate he voted for.
Two years later, on November 11, 2008, the most powerful man of European football, revisited Albania for the 5th time, alas, none of those times has ever been as a player. It came 5 months after, both FIFA and UEFA, cancelled the suspension of FSHF from all international competitions, due to a conflict born between FSHF and Albanian Ministry of Sports on the FSHF’s status and its independence. Now, all disputes between FSHF and Albanian Ministry of Sports seem to have bee resolved and Platini was happy to have a meeting with Ylli Pango, the Minister of Sports, where he didn’t forget to request more guaranties from Mr. Pango on FSHF’s independence.
“We are proud of our democracy in UEFA, which is based on the democracies of 53 member federations,” said Platini. “Your democracy is what makes our democracy. And the democracy can be achieved only through political autonomy. We respect national laws in a scrupulous way, but we are not willing to accept any interventions that threaten our independence. It’s our will and goal to protect a federation’s independence and we have shown so in the past. I know that situation in Albania is not one of the best, but in a meeting with President Topi (the Albanian President) I came to realize things have turned for the better. You have to understand that UEFA will always be here to support you” said Platini during the meeting.