{"id":9545,"date":"2011-12-09T10:52:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-09T10:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/12\/michel-platini-blasts-sir-alex-fergusons-claim-that-europa-league-is-a-penalty-for-manchester-united-the-world-does-not-revolve-around-england\/"},"modified":"2011-12-09T10:52:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-09T10:52:00","slug":"michel-platini-blasts-sir-alex-fergusons-claim-that-europa-league-is-a-penalty-for-manchester-united-the-world-does-not-revolve-around-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/09\/michel-platini-blasts-sir-alex-fergusons-claim-that-europa-league-is-a-penalty-for-manchester-united-the-world-does-not-revolve-around-england\/","title":{"rendered":"Michel Platini blasts Sir Alex Ferguson’s claim that Europa League is a ‘penalty’ for Manchester United: The world does not revolve around England"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uefa president Michel Platini has leapt to the defence of the Europa League following a derisory comment from Manchester United<\/a> manager Sir Alex Ferguson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Premier League champions were eliminated from the Champions League at the hands of Basel, with their third-place group finish seeing them playing Europa League football in the new year.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Sir Alex described participation in the competition as a “penalty” for the club that have reached three Champions League finals in the last four years.<\/p>\n

But Platini has hit back, telling Eurosport<\/em>: \u201cThe world does not revolve around England. I like England a lot, its football is fantastic, its supporters are wonderful but you shouldn’t criticise the Europa League just because you’ve played in three Champions League finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Europa League is a brilliant competition, it’s amazing. I know Mr Ferguson would have preferred to be in the Champions League but so would many clubs who don’t have that possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the defeat on Wednesday, Sir Alex told reporters: “It is a loss because it [the Champions League] is the best tournament in the world. It is a marvellous tournament.<\/p>\n

“Now we are in a competition I have never been in with Manchester United. It does mean Sundays right through and Thursday-Sunday matches. That has to be dealt with. That is our penalty for not qualifying tonight.”<\/p>\n

How do you stay up to date with football when on the move? With http:\/\/m.goal.com<\/a> \u2013 your best source for mobile coverage of the beautiful game.<\/em><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Uefa president Michel Platini has leapt to the defence of the Europa League following a derisory comment from Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson . <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nMichel Platini blasts Sir Alex Ferguson's claim that Europa League is a 'penalty' for Manchester United: The world does not revolve around England - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/09\/michel-platini-blasts-sir-alex-fergusons-claim-that-europa-league-is-a-penalty-for-manchester-united-the-world-does-not-revolve-around-england\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Michel Platini blasts Sir Alex Ferguson's claim that Europa League is a 'penalty' for Manchester United: The world does not revolve around England - 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