With his deft feet, immense footballing brain and a developed nose for goal, Michel Platini was established as one of the world's best by the early 1980s, at the latest. After stints with Nancy and St. Etienne in Ligue 1, he moved to Juventus in 1982 and became a genuine global star. Playing for "the Old Lady," he won the league title twice and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1984.

Platini also reveled in international glory. As the right hand to his coach Michel Hidalgo, he orchestrated play for France and led them to victory on home soil in the 1984 European Championships. In the final against Spain, Platini scored the game's only goal with a free kick. La Grande Nation celebrated its newest hero, who would later be crowned European sportsman of the year.

A little like Franz Beckenbauer, Platini took charge of the national team as a coach soon after the end of his playing career. He was just 33. But he struggled to emulate his success on pitch from the sidelines. He failed to qualify for the 1990 World Cup. After that, his France team went on to record 19 unbeaten games, only to drop out early at the 1992 European Championships. Platini then quit.

A year later, Platini moved on to his next grand task, organizing the 1998 World Cup in France. Then 38, this marked the beginning of a meteoric rise to the top as a football functionary. The party proved a success, as hosts France won fueled by their next inspired number 10: Zinedine Zidane. Meanwhile, Platini struck a key alliance with Sepp Blatter in his 1998 bid to become FIFA president.

By 2007, Platini hit the big time in European functionary terms. In January, he won the vote to become UEFA president, dethroning incumbent Lennart Johansson. Platini won his core support from smaller, primarily eastern European federations. He went on to secure automatic Champions League berths for "smaller" teams, also expanding the European Championship — from 16 to 24 participating countries.

Platini later announced his intent to succeed Sepp Blatter as the president of FIFA. But this handover from patron to protege never came to pass. Both Platini and Blatter were suspended from FIFA ahead of the unscheduled 2016 vote. The reason? An ominous payment of €1.8 million from Blatter to Platini, nominally for consultancy work. Instead of Platini, Gianni Infantino took the reins of FIFA.

Platini fights the allegations of corruption but with limited success. Even his appeal at the Court of Arbitration of Sport is unsuccessful. FIFA's ethics commission banned Platini from the group for eight years in December of 2015. The court found that while Blatter's payment to Platini could not be called corruption, it did also lack a legal basis. His suspension was later reduced to four years.

Platini's ban from all football activities expires later this year. But now he has been questioned in connection with Qatar winning hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup. Does that mark the end for his FIFA career? His lawyer certainly doesn't see it that way: "He has done absolutely nothing wrong and affirms that he is totally unrelated to the facts [of the case], which are unknown to him."

Just months ago Aleksander Ceferin was largely unknown beyond Slovenia. Now, though, the 48-year old is the new UEFA president. Ceferin won the support of the majority of UEFA's national associations in the vote at the extraordinary Congress in Athens - including the German football association (DFB). He is the seventh president in UEFA's 62-year history.

Ebbe Schwartz was the first president of UEFA. The Dane, who was known as an excellent diplomat, was elected in 1954 and held the position for eight years. In 1964, two years after he left the post, Schwarz died after a heart attack on the way home from the Olympic Games in Tokyo, aged 63.

For 10 years, from 1962 to 1972, the Swiss national Gustav Wiederkehr held UEFA's top job. It was under his stewardship in 1971 that the UEFA Cup, which is now the Europa League, was born. Wiederkehr died at his workplace in Zurich following a heart attack at the age of 66. Hungarian Sandor Barcs took the role of interim chief of operations for half a year.

Artemio Franchi was the only candidate for the post in 1973. The Italian had a footballing pedigree: After his playing career he took up refereeing, before becoming president of Fiorentina. Under Franchi UEFA increased the number of participants in the European championships to eight. In 1983, at the age of 61, Franchi was killed in a car accident leaving UEFA without a president once again.

After Franci's death, UEFA Vice President Jacques Georges took over the president's duties on an interim basis. In 1984, the Frenchman was actually elected to the post. His tenure was marked by a major step forward in the commerialization of European footballl largely through growing television revenues. Georges stepped down in 1990.

Lennart Johansson was elected in 1990 and held the post for 17 years - longer than anyone else. It was during the Swede's reign that the European Cup became the incredibly lucrative Champions League. In 1998 Johansson lost the FIFA presidential election to Joseph Blatter, before losing the 2007 UEFA presidential election to Michel Platini. He was subsequently named UEFA's honorary president.

After he retired as a player, former Juventus and France star Michel Platini became something of a protégé to the longtime FIFA president, Sepp Blatter. However, FIFA imposed long bans from all football-related activities on both men, after news came out of a dubious payment Blatter made to Platini in 2011. Both men deny any wrongdoing, but appear unlikely to work in football again.