KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: Reinhard Grindel, senior politician who has taken over as new president of the German DFB, has issued a scathing attack on Michel Platini’s planned farewell address to European federation at tomorrow’s extraordinary congress.

In a bizarre move by the ethics committee of world governing body FIFA, the Frenchman has been granted permission to address congress even though he is banned from all football activities for financial misconduct in office.

Hans-Joachim Eckert, senior German judge of the ethics panel, had described Platini’s ‘get-out-of-jail’ card as a “gesture of humanity.”

However Grindel has urged Platini to think again, even this late in the day, about his appearance on the stage of a congress which must choose between favourite Aleksander Ceferin (Slovenia) and Michael Van Praag (Holland) as new UEFA president.

Grindel said: “I would have liked Michel Platini to waive the opportunity to make an appearance. This congress must be all about the future, not concern itself with being addressed about the past.

“UEFA Congress should be governed by the programme of the new president and not by the mistakes of his predecessor. ”

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