dsseldorf

France soccer great Michel Platini was elected Uefa president Friday, defeating Swedish incumbent Lennart Johansson to become head of European soccer’s governing body. The 51-year-old Platini won by 27 votes to 23, with two invalid votes, in a secret ballot of Uefa’s 52 federations, ousting the 77-year-old Swede after 17 years at the helm.

German prosecutors are investigating possible kickbacks in a sale of warships to South Africa by a German shipbuilding consortium, a prosecutor confirmed on Saturday. The German news magazine Der Spiegel was to appear on Monday with a report that the ”irregularities” were suspected of occurring in 1999.

German football chiefs have called for the nation to protest against neo-Nazi marches during this month’s World Cup finals and show the world that a unified Germany has no time for xenophobia. A number of neo-Nazi organisations are expected to use the World Cup, beginning in just seven days time, as a platform to voice their opinions.