Michel Platini insists he is still the best man to run FIFA

Michel Platini insists he remains the best man to run football despite his ongoing suspension from the game.

The UEFA president is being investigated over a payment of around £1.3m, signed off by Sepp Blatter, which was accepted by the Frenchman in 2011 for work carried out between 1998-2002.

That has thrown into doubt his eligibility to stand in February's election to replace Blatter, who has also been suspended by FIFA's Ethics Committee, with FA chairman Greg Dyke telling MPs on Wednesday he believes Platini is "unlikely" to be a candidate.

I am, in all humility, the most able to run world football.

Platini is one of seven candidates in the race but will only be on the ballot in February if his ban is lifted.

"I am, in all humility, the most able to run world football," he said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

"As far as I'm concerned, there is manifestly a disproportion between the facts that I am accused of and the extent of the provisional suspension I have been hit with.

"This suspension prevents me from campaigning and fighting on an equal footing. It clouds what is really at stake in this election for the future of world football.

"Even if I cannot go out campaigning, I fully consider myself a candidate," he added. "Today, I have the sense of being a knight from the Middle Ages, in front of a castle. I am trying to get in to bring football back, but instead I'm having boiling oil poured on my head."

Platini insists everything about the £1.3m payment - which was made three months before a FIFA presidential election in which Platini opted not to challenge Blatter - was properly handled.

"The two million (Swiss Francs) represents the equivalent of four years' salary arrears that FIFA owed me when I was the president's special adviser. The president himself offered me a contract and a salary that I accepted," he said.

"So to be clear: was there work provided? Yes. Is an oral contract legal in Switzerland? Yes. Did I have the right to reclaim my money even nine years later? Yes. Did I produce a proper invoice as FIFA required? Yes. Was the money declared to the taxman? Yes.

"Yes, I have waited a long time to reclaim what I was owed. But the only mistake is that I let several years go by.

"I had faith in the word of the FIFA president and I knew he would pay me one day. I was lucky enough not to need the money, but just because I don't need the money doesn't mean I shouldn't be paid for my work."