|
Platini won't play in benefit for injured policeman
Posted: Thursday July 02, 1998 06:03 PM
| |
Platini, once a midfielder for France, said he was not told about the benefit match (AP) |
PARIS (AP) -- World Cup chief organizer Michel Platini said Thursday he
will not play in a match of retired stars to benefit a French policeman
beaten into a coma by German thugs.
Platini, once a great midfielder for France, said it
was too soon for the game and that he was not told about it before it was
organized.
The match with former French and German internationals July 11 in Paris
-- on the eve of the World Cup final -- will raise money for David Nivel,
who was attacked June 21 in Lens after the Germany-Yugoslavia
match.
Former German internationals expected to play include Rudi Voeller,
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Manfred Kaltz. Franz Beckenbauer will coach.
French players expected to play include Eric Cantona, David Ginola and
Didier Six.
Claude Simonet, president of the French soccer federation, said Thursday
he was sure Platini would want to play. But Platini, the co-president of
the France '98 organizing committee, said he wouldn't participate.
"It would be better, firstly, to have this match in the Arras region,
were Nivel is from. And secondly, I wasn't informed of this initiative,"
Platini said. "It would be better to take some time to think about what we
should do."
Platini said it would be hard to get together the French and German
internationals so quickly to stage the match.
But Simonet and his German counterpart, Egidius Braun, said a number of
stars have committed to the match to show solidarity between the two
countries.
An emotional Braun spoke of his shock when he heard the officer had been
beaten with an iron bar.
"I wasn't thinking of football, but of the destiny of the policeman who
did his duty for all of us, and of his family," Braun said.
"We have 80 million people in Germany and only 600 of those animals," he
said of the hooligans.
Braun said he wanted some of the money raised in Germany by various
public appeals put in a special fund in Nivel's name and used to combat
soccer-related violence.
Simonet said the teams will mix German and French players and wear soccer
jerseys with the text, "Yes to football without violence."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
| 
