BILBAO: Former CNN football reporter Pedro Pinto has been appointed to a promotional role at UEFA which is bound to revive speculation about Michel Platini’s ambitions writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

The Portuguese TV presenter, 37, has been regularly used by the European federation to ‘front’ its broadcast competition draw shows.

His appointment was confirmed by a meeting of the UEFA executive committee in Bilbao. General secretary Gianni Infantino says Pinto’s duties include “co-ordinating institutional communications relating especially to the UEFA president.”

Pinto will begin work in mid-January, at the start of a year in which Platini is expected to announce whether he will run for the FIFA presidency in 2015. Sepp Blatter, president since 1998, is considered likely to stand again.

Both Platini and Blatter have said they will not take decision until after the World Cup finals in Brazil next June and July.

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