Platini blasts FIFA over business control of players

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, Mar 27 (AFP): UEFA president Michel Platini on Thursday blasted the world federation's lack of action over secretive companies owning players as he stepped up a war of nerves with FIFA rival Sepp Blatter.
Platini, who promised he would announce later in the year whether he will run for the FIFA presidency next year, said the so-called 'third party ownership' of players is a "danger" to football.
He called on FIFA to impose a global ban on the practice and praised the English Football Association for being the first to act against the secretive companies which control many top players.
With Blatter sat prominently in the audience at the UEFA Congress, Platini said: "If FIFA fails to act, we will address this issue in our own competitions in Europe.
"The UEFA executive committee has already adopted a position on this issue in principle, and we will see this through.
"I do not want to be complicit in these practices, and at the moment I have the nasty feeling that I am."
Platini said that as a player he had taken strike action because clubs had too much control of players.
"Today, players are certainly not the property of their clubs, but something worse is happening instead.