The former France captain and coach became UEFA president in 2007 after beating Sweden's Lennart Johansson in a bitter election contest. His confirmation as the head of European football through to 2015 came as little surprise following December’s announcement that he would stand unopposed.
Speaking at the UEFA Congress in Paris, Platini stated he would not rest on his laurels in his promotion of the European game, adding that the fight against crowd violence and match-fixing and the implementation of the financial fair play regulations would also be high on his agenda.
However, in the most significant announcement from Tuesday’s Congress, the UEFA chief outlined that the first element of his drive to promote national team football would be the centralised sales of media rights for the qualifying matches of national team competitions.
Platini stated that all 53 UEFA member associations have now signed a mandate to implement centralisation, adding that the move would benefit the smaller nations. He said: “I believe in this centralisation project because it is a football project, not a commercial one. It is a project aimed, above all, at protecting and developing national team football. What is more, the knock-on effect will be guaranteed revenue for each association.”