Tuesday, 30th October, 2012
One of the top agents in world football, Mino Raiola, has slammed UEFA president Michel Platini and FIFA supremo Sepp Blatter, while insisting that Zlatan Ibrahimovic must win the Ballon d’Or.
Raiola counts the magical Swedish striker amongst his clients, along with Manchester City forward Mario Balotelli, who has also been included, along with the Paris Saint-Germain star, on the initial shortlist for this year’s Ballon d’Or.
Raiola believes that it is Ibrahimovic who must be given the accolade and, if he is not, it will only reinforce his opinion of the Ballon d’Or as a political prize.
"The Ballon d’Or will only have value if Zlatan wins. This would prove that it is a fair and independent prize", Raiola told Swedish daily Expressen.
"If he does not win, it will only reinforce the impression that this is a corrupt political prize."
Raiola then squarely turned his fire on UEFA and FIFA, organisations he likened to mafia gangs, and their heads, Platini and Blatter.
relatedNewsStory"FIFA and UEFA are exactly the same. They stand for anything but transparency. They could be described as a mafia organisation hiding things.
"If the Swedish government acted like UEFA, the Swedish people would launch a revolution."
Indeed, Raiola has accused Platini of doing nothing to help football, with the agent also branding Blatter a "demented dictator".
"Michel Platini has never done anything important for football. Just things which benefit him.
"If Michel Platini had enough courage, he would try to change UEFA. If I were the president of UEFA, I would do this: publish all UEFA’s financial details, disclose where all the money goes, have all decisions taken by majority voting.
"Right now, none of this exists within UEFA or FIFA."
And, for Raiola "Sepp Blatter is a demented dictator."
