NYON: FIFA is investigating a complaint from UEFA about an “alleged smear campaign” against its president Michel Platini.

The European federation has  asked world football’s governing body to explain the apparent distribution from their headquarters of a document entitled ‘Platini: Skeletons in the closet’ and has raised the issue with FIFA’s ethics investigator.

The article was sent anonymously to several newspapers, according to the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

FIFA has told Welt am Sonntag that it is investigating the provenance of the article which, the newspaper claimed, had been written Thomas Renggli, a former editor of the world federation’s weekly e-magazine.

Platini is a candidate to succeed Sepp Blatter as FIFA president next February 26 along with former Asian vice-president Chung Mong-joon of South Korea and a clutch of others who include Brazil’s Zico  and Liberian federation boss Musa Bility.

The document is entitled ‘Platini: Skeletons in the Closet’ and questions his credibility as a potential FIFA candidate especially considering his support for the controversial Qatar World Cup hosting.

A UEFA spokesman said: “I can confirm that UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino sent a letter of complaint to FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke.

“We have asked FIFA to investigate the origin of this article because we are concerned by the reports of an alleged smear campaign against the UEFA president.

“Copies of this letter were also sent to [FIFA’s independent chief ethics investigator] Cornel Borbely and [chairman of the audit and compliance committee] Domenico Scala for ethics and transparency reasons.”

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