Michel Platini says UEFA will do everything in its power to help stamp out all forms discrimination in the global game.
In an exclusive interview with TheFA.com at St. George’s Park, the UEFA president restated the governing body’s fight against racism, sexism and homophobia.
“We fight against homophobia and sexism. We are trying to to help civilisation have a better life.”
Michel Platini
UEFA President
“We work to fight every form of discrimination. Not just racism towards people of different colour, but also towards the disabled,” he said.
“We fight against homophobia and sexism. We are trying to help humanity, help civilisation to have a better life. We have to keep out of football these stupid people who are fighting for bad causes.”
He added: “I am president of UEFA and in Europe we have a lot of racism it is getting worse and worse. We can do a lot of things, we can punish, but there is a lot of racism.
Wembley Stadium is to host the finals and semi-finals of Euro 2020
“We try to do all we can. We have to punish, we have to educate and we have to continue our fight.”
Platini was happy to reflect on last month's announcement that Wembley Stadium would host the semi-finals and finals of Euro 2020.
He said: “Wembley is a beautiful stadium of 90,000 seats and London is an international city with airports and hotels and everything we need to create a festival of European football in 2020.
“It is important for a great country of football like England to have this technical centre”
Michel Platini
UEFA President
“It’s perfect because of the way of living in London, day and night. It was a good capital to receive the first tournament of this type.“
Platini was impressed by St. George's Park, and said it would be the perfect place to help the game grow in this country.
"St. George’s Park is beautiful. It is very modern, it is very new. You have created a space to develop football in England. That is very important," he said.
"Now what you do with that is very important too. You need coaches, players, very good people who can learn and teach how to play football.
"It is important for a great country of football like England to have this technical centre when you can bring all the future talent of the England national team."
Watch FATV’s exclusive interview with Michel Platini in the video player below
Watch Michel Platini speak exclusively to FATV
