Greece visit for UEFA President

UEFA President Michel Platini has visited Greece, where he met prime minister Antonis Samaras in Athens and attended the UEFA Europa League match between PAOK FC and SL Benfica with Hellenic Football Federation (EPO) president Giorgos Sarris.

"The reason for my trip to Athens was to meet the Prime Minister, as Greece assumed the European Union's six-month presidency in January," the UEFA President said. "It was a good meeting. The Prime Minister was very understanding on the issues facing football, and expressed his intention to help UEFA move forward. We spoke about financial fair play, match-fixing, and home-grown players. It was a first step towards our cooperation in the upcoming months."

Mr Platini was accompanied on his visit by UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino and deputy general secretary Theodore Theodoridis.

The UEFA President was accompanied by Mr Sarris to the UEFA Europa League match at the Toumba Stadium in Salonika. "I had promised a while back that I would come here to watch a match. I am here because I love football," he said.

Mr Platini watched the match alongside Stavros Kalafatis, Greece's alternate minister of environment, energy and climate change. The latter had the opportunity to talk with Mr Platini about his ministry's latest bill which will give the national association and football clubs the opportunity to proceed with renovation work in all Greek stadiums built before 2012.

Before leaving Greece, Mr Platini spoke to Greek media, and took the opportunity to emphasise UEFA's viewpoint on match-fixing. "It is the duty of players, coaches and journalists to defend the sport, because if we fail, that will be the end of football. Rest assured that at UEFA, we are working very hard to deal with this phenomenon. We are doing our utmost to investigate all cases and defend football."