Michel Platini of France was voted in as president of UEFA on Friday. Platini, 51, defeated the Swedish incumbent Lennart Johansson, 77, by 27 votes to 23 in a poll of national Football Association presidents at the UEFA Congress. Johansson had been in charge of European soccer's governing body since 1990. Platini, three times former European Footballer of the Year, becomes the first high profile former player to hold such an important position in soccer administration. He said after his victory: “I am moved, enormously moved but I am happy.it’s the start of a great adventure.” Platini, who plans to cut the number of Champions League places open to the big national leagues, had used his final speech before the vote to put the emphasis on soccer’s importance as a sport rather than a business.-Kevin Fylan
