UEFA head Michel Platini claimed yesterday that he wants politics to play a lesser role at Fifa if he is elected its next president.

He is the front-runner to replace Sepp Blatter as the head of football’s world governing body in February and has the backing of the richest footballing nations.

Platini, known for making political calculations, said he would focus on the sport and not “political deal-making.”

In one particularly notorious case Platini voted for the 2022 World Cup to be held in Qatar just weeks after meeting France’s then president Nicolas Sarkozy and Qatari officials at Sarkozy’s official residence.

“Sarkozy never asked me to vote for Qatar, but I knew what would be good,” Platini said.