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UEFA president Michel Platini is "the best candidate" to succeed Sepp Blatter at the head of FIFA, the French Football Federation (FFF) president has told L'Equipe. Platini, 59, urged Blatter, 79, to resign prior to last Friday's FIFA presidential election and delivered stinging public criticism of the Swiss national. On Wednesday, UEFA cancelled a meeting in Berlin set for this weekend at which member federations were originally to discuss ways of opposing a Blatter-led FIFA. Platini however, said it would be better to await developments after Blatter announced plans to resign. Platini also noted the "unpredictable nature'' of a U.S. federal investigation into corruption in world football. He said "considering new information is revealed every day, I believe it is wiser to take time to assess the situation." The former France international had been strongly tipped to run against Blatter before finally throwing the weight of his support behind Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan, the only other candidate in Friday's poll. Platini last week suggested he may reconsider his decision not to run for the FIFA presidency if Blatter stepped aside, and the three-time former Ballon d'Or winner hailed Blatter's resignation on Tuesday as "a difficult decision, courageous, but the right decision." FFF president Noel Le Graet said it is now time for his fellow Frenchman, who has been at the head of UEFA since 2007, to take the reins of world football. "I have been talking about Michel as being the best candidate for a long time now," Le Graet, 73, said. "He has led UEFA in remarkable fashion for several years. "But does he want to change his life? For me, during the last election, he was the only one who could win against Blatter." Platini had asked UEFA's 54 member associations to vote for Prince Ali, but Le Graet lent his support to Blatter in the poll in which the incumbent narrowly failed to win a decisive two-thirds majority. UEFA had been expected to meet on the sidelines of this weekend's Champions League final. "No, I don't regret voting for Blatter," Le Graet explained. "I think Blatter has led FIFA without cheating, and I still think that. There are a lot of bad things said. "I'll say it again: I'm surprised that he's resigned so soon with the investigations having only just started. Now we're going to know everything." Following the arrest of a number of FIFA officials in Zurich last week prior to the election, American media have claimed Blatter is now himself being investigated by authorities looking into claims of long-term and wide-scale corruption in FIFA. Speaking to TMZ on Manchester City's postseason tour of North America, former France international midfielder Samir Nasri praised the actions of the FBI, whose probe has sent FIFA into turmoil. "Everyone knew there was a little bit of corruption," Nasri, 27, said. "It's a good thing the USA is getting involved. We need them to get involved because in Europe, no one was doing anything about that and we've been talking about it for a while."
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