Petit: Former players' joint criticism of FIFA is futile.

French football legend Petit explained on Tuesday on the show "Rothen Hot Talk" why he participated in the open letter drafted by former players, criticizing some of the practices of FIFA and Gianni Infantino.

This statement has garnered widespread attention. On Monday, former French internationals Silvestre, Petit, Pires, and others published an open letter on social media criticizing FIFA's actions, but without naming its president, Gianni Infantino.

One of the signatories of the open letter, Petit, later elaborated on his position in an RMC program called "Rothen Hot Talk".

Petit explained, "A few days ago, Silvestre contacted me via message and asked if I would like to put my name on a list of former players. This list stems from what happened again during the World Cup in the United States, especially the incident between Infantino and Trump."

However, the RMC commentator does not believe that this initiative will necessarily change the status quo of FIFA: "It's a futile effort, just to raise awareness. This is my opinion, I am not speaking on behalf of the players, nor on behalf of Silvestre, nor on behalf of everyone who signed the list, I am only speaking for myself."

Petit explained why he wanted his former teammates to break their silence. He said, "This statement we released is not against anyone working at FIFA, but rather against a few individuals. There are many good people within FIFA. I want to say that I will not criticize my former teammates who are now FIFA ambassadors."

In recent weeks, FIFA President Gianni Infantino has unveiled a series of controversial plans and made controversial decisions. However, Petit's discontent did not begin in recent weeks.

"The Blatter era was also rife with scandals."

Petit stated: "It's certainly good to talk about these things, but I don't see the point in resuming daily operations tomorrow. We need to review what happened in the past few months, but we can't just focus on the past few months, because the Blatter era was also rife with scandals. Concrete solutions must be proposed. Elections are coming up. Even if Infantino is removed from office, or someone else is replaced, the way FIFA operates will never change. The way FIFA operates must change in some specific ways."

Petit did not expect the players' statement to cause such a big reaction, and he hopes that this statement can drive change.

“I don’t have the truth, but this is at least in line with the direction of democracy. Right now, we are still very, very far from democracy. I think we are currently appropriating the common wealth that belongs to everyone for personal purposes, and this trend is becoming more and more obvious, affecting not only football.”