by Our Sports Desk

Fifa lacks credibility while Sepp Blatter is president, Uefa leader Michel Platini said yesterday, saying his former mentor fears the “emptiness” of life after leaving football’s world governing body.

Blatter is clinging to power “at all costs,” Platini told French sports daily L’Equipe in an interview published on Monday.

Ahead of the Fifa presidential election on Friday, Platini said the 79-year-old Blatter had no grand plans for Fifa and it was “not credible” to claim he needed a fifth four-year term to complete an unfinished mission.

“No, he is simply scared of the future, as he has given his life to the institution, to the point where he now identifies himself fully with Fifa,” Platini said. “I understand the fear of that emptiness that he (Blatter) must have, it’s natural. But if he really loves Fifa, he should have put its interests ahead of his own.”

Though Platini said he likes Blatter on a personal level, his explicit criticism of the Fifa chief points to a deep rift between the two men. Blatter seeks to extend his 17-year reign at an election many saw as a natural time for the former France great to get the top job.

He opted last August not to challenge Blatter in the election of 209 Fifa member federations and now supports the only opponent: Fifa vice president Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan.

“I am firmly convinced that Ali, whom I have known on a personal level for years, would make a great Fifa president. He has everything it takes,” Platini said of the prince, praising his “great freedom of spirit and independence.”

However, Blatter is strongly favoured to win another vote with widespread support in five of Fifa’s six continental regions. He noted his longevity in office in a newspaper interview in his native Switzerland on Sunday.

Blatter compared himself to a mountain goat, telling the Neue Zurcher Zeitung he “cannot be stopped, I just keep going.”

The race for the Fifa presidency is down to two people, after Michael van Praag and Luis Figo pulled out last week.