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Platini says he "might have" pledged to vote for USA World Cup bid before backing Qatar

Dan Mullan/Getty Images

Michel Platini ended up being one of Qatar's biggest supporters in their bid to host the 2022 World Cup. But before he went in and voted for the eventual winners, he says he "might have" told the United States that he would back their bid.

Platini's latest admission comes on the heels of speculation that he had supported the U.S. bid for months, only to change at the last moment. People have speculated that his backing Qatar was part of a political agreement between France and Qatar and that he misled the Americans through the entire process.

"[Former France president Nicolas] Sarkozy never asked me to vote for Qatar, but I knew what would be good," Platini said.

This is all especially rich because FIFA has rules that dictate that politics must remain out of the sport and Platini is campaigning to be FIFA president under a promise to rid FIFA of politics because he believes it is causing harm to the game.

Platini appears to have plenty of support in his campaign for the presidency. Many believe it is inevitable that he will succeed Sepp Blatter, which could ruffle some feathers seeing as he is hardly a picture of pristine morals and ethics.

It will be interesting to see how the U.S. votes in the FIFA election. Not only is Platini shady at best, he appears to have lied to the U.S. in the run up to the 2022 World Cup host selection. But if he is the presumed winner, the Americans may want to support Platini so as not to get on his bad side -- keep in mind, they voted for Blatter four times -- and curry favor, or they may choose to take a stand. Then again, as of now we don't even know when this vote will take place so a lot could change.