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Michel Platini refuses to return expensive watch that violated FIFA rules

We care about watches. Expensive watches. (Photo by Harold Cunningham/Getty Images for UEFA)
We care about watches. Expensive watches. (Photo by Harold Cunningham/Getty Images for UEFA)

FIFA has asked executives to return luxury watches gifted to them by one of the Brazilian football confederation's sponsors during the World Cup, but UEFA president Michel Platini has decided that he's not going to.

From the BBC:

Platini, 59, said: "I'm a well-educated person. I don't return gifts."

Platini also said Fifa knew the items were being handed out in June and questioned why it only acted now.

The watches were given by one of the CBF's sponsors to 32 association chiefs, 28 Fifa executive committee members and five other members of South American associations. [...]

The CBF said it had paid $8,750 (£5,336) for each watch but Fifa's ethics committee obtained an independent valuation of 25,000 Swiss francs (£16,400).

Since the watches were reported to FIFA's ethics committee, FA chairman Greg Dyke and FIFA vice president Jim Boyce have both said they will return the watches. Under FIFA rules, officials are only allowed to accept gifts with symbolic or trivial value.

Platini, meanwhile, said he will make a cash donation of the same value as the watch to an unspecified charity, but you'll have to pry his free watches from his cold, dead wrist. From the AP:

"We all receive watches. I've received several," Platini said, wearing another watch that had been a gift. "But I was surprised on the one hand to see the value of the watch."

And just to push the situation to maximum absurdity, FIFA president Sepp Blatter decided to turn his Twitter account into a parody of itself by tweeting this...

Welcome to FIFA, where the watches are free and self-awareness is out of everyone's price range.

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Brooks Peck

is the editor of Dirty Tackle on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him or follow on Twitter!