NYON/PARIS: Embattled UEFA president Michel Platini has contacted the French Sports Minister to insist that he has done nothing wrong, amid the latest strand of the FIFA scandal.

The former captain and then manager of France has been questioned by Swiss investigators over an alleged ‘disloyal payment’ authorised to him by the world federation and its president Sepp Blatter in February 2011.

Scepticism about the nature of the 2m Swiss francs payment arose after Platini claimed it was for work he had undertaken for FIFA nine years earlier.

French Secretary of State Thierry Braillard, according to French media reports, said he had taken a phone call from Platini with an assurance that he had done nothing wrong

Brailland said: “He has the feeling he is clean and he wanted to say it to me again. He explained everything. I fully trust his honesty and his determination to become FIFA president.”

If Platini has explained everything to Braillard then it is more than he has done publicly.

German league president Reinhard Rauball and England’s FA chairman Greg Dyke are two of a number of European officials who have said that Platini has more clarification work ahead of him to maintain confidence in support for the FIFA presidency.

French Sports minister Patrick Kanner added his own personal support for Platini, saying: “We have not changed our minds on the support we give him. If there was any problem, I do not doubt for a minute that he would have refused to run for FIFA president.

“His message to us was :’Continue to trust me’. That’s what he wanted to tell us.”

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