FA to continue backing Platini for FIFA chief

The England Football Association has insisted it will continue to back its continental parent body, UEFA's president Michel Platini's bid to become FIFA chief, despite his links to a corruption inquiry.

Investigators are probing payments made to Platini by FIFA counterpart Sepp Blatter, bbc reported.

The FA announced in July it was backing the Frenchman for the role and in a statement on Wednesday, it said: "We are still of that view. Events of recent days have raised a number of issues which do need to be fully examined."

Platini, 60, is being treated "in between a witness and an accused person", say Swiss investigators.

The FA board met on Wednesday and later said it maintained its "unanimous" support for Platini.

Blatter has said he will step down from football's world governing body in February, with Platini among those who will stand for the post.

Explaining its support for the former French star, the FA said, "We thought he was an excellent president of UEFA and could bring those same leadership qualities to FIFA."

But it stressed, "We are following the ongoing investigation initiated by the Swiss attorney general which Platini is co-operating with in full."

Swiss prosecutors are looking into a payment made to Platini in 2011 for work he completed for Blatter almost a decade earlier.