LONDON, United Kingdom — Former UEFA boss Michel Platini says FIFA president Gianni Infantino “has become more of an autocrat” and is too interested in the rich and powerful, in an interview with The Guardian on Thursday.

Infantino was Platini’s deputy from 2009 and 2015 when the Frenchman headed European football’s governing body.

“He was a good number two, but is not a good number one,” Platini said of Infantino. “He worked very well at UEFA but he has one problem: he likes the rich and powerful people, the ones with money. It’s his character.

“He was like that as a number two, but back then he was not the boss.”

“Unfortunately Infantino has become more of an autocrat since the pandemic,” he said.

Ahead of the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, Infantino has cultivated a close relationship with US President Donald Trump and created a special FIFA peace prize that he awarded him at the draw for the tournament in December.

The Swiss-Italian lawyer took over from the scandal-hit Sepp Blatter in 2016, but Platini believes Infantino’s top-down leadership has made FIFA a less democratic organisation than it was in Blatter’s day.

“There is less democracy than in Blatter’s time. You can say what you want about Blatter, but his main problem is that he wanted to continue at FIFA for life. He was a good person for football,” Platini told The Guardian.

“The administrators in football now, they are just doing their job. You find many who wouldn’t care whether it’s football or basketball. It’s not always a case of loving football if you work at UEFA or FIFA.”

Platini has been a vocal critic of Infantino and his close circle for several years, accusing him of thwarting the former French playing great’s bid to become FIFA president by tipping off Swiss prosecutors about an undocumented payment from Blatter to Platini of two million Swiss francs ($2.5 million).