The former UEFA President may well have been the only thing preventing a European Super League.

There were many things to dislike about Michel Platini’s tenure as UEFA President. As well as the illegal payments scandal for which he was banned, this is the man responsible for giving the 2022 World Cup to Qatar on former-French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s say-so.

So why would anyone want him back?

There is one simple reason. Michel Platini was the only thing keeping Europe’s greediest clubs from bullying football into submission.

No matter what Platini did, he was preferable to the storm that I fear is coming.

It was a matter of weeks after Platini was suspended from football activities that talk of a European Super League came back from the dead.

And today the first step of the dastardly plan was revealed. A Champions League comprised of two groups of eight, playing seven times home and away, with all the cards stacked to ensure only the biggest teams will qualify. The commitment from players and staff required for this tournament would relegate domestic leagues to second tier competitions.

That this is timed so soon after the suspension of Michel Platini and the departure of his henchman, Gianni Infantino, to the FIFA presidency, is no coincidence.

In 2007 Platini defeated Lennart Johansson in the UEFA presidential elections on a platform of taking power away from the biggest clubs and making smaller associations more competitive.

Two steps he took shortly after becoming president were very telling. The first was to abolish the G-14 group, an unholy alliance of the fourteen self-proclaimed biggest clubs in Europe set up purely to advance their own interests. It was replaced by the more egalitarian European Clubs Association, which featured 103 teams, including one from every UEFA nation.

Secondly he revamped Champions League qualifying to ensure an easier path to the group stage for champions of lower ranked nations at the expense of fourth place finishers in countries like England and Spain. The biggest clubs in Europe have never truly accepted this change.

‘We’re sick of playing BATE Borisov!’ they cry.

But that’s just the thing. Platini’s reforms have come from a deep-seated conviction (maybe spawned from his days playing at forgotten clubs like Nancy and Saint-Etienne) that fans of teams like BATE and Malmo who actually go to games are more important than fans of AC Milan or Liverpool in China.

Now, with Platini and Infantino having departed, UEFA is a weak shambles. And the vultures of the former G-14 are circling, about to finish the job they failed to finish nine years ago.

When the Barcelona President talks openly of Champions League wildcards for big clubs who have failed to qualify on footballing merit, and the Inter Milan Chief Executive echoes his thoughts, we should take them seriously.

These people really believe they can ride roughshod over the wishes of nearly every football fan in Europe. And if nobody stops them, they will get what they want. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually we will have a closed-shop competition designed by the biggest brands for the biggest brands.

Oh to still have old Michel Platini to kick around.