Well-spoken and privately educated Daily Telegraph reporter Henry Winter has managed to bag an exclusive interview with UEFA president Michel Platini. Henners' Twitter page has been trailing this since Monday when he said

Just returned from Geneva, interviewing Platini in Nyon. As he was as a player, Uefa pres full of ideas and venture. Surprisingly pro-English.

Now for the article proper, it's an epic.

He sets out his stall on the English game:

Often painted as an anti-English ogre by Fleet Street, Platini is no admirer of the Fourth Estate but he wants to transmit a message to the English. He wants to protect English football from debt and destruction.

"Football belongs to the fans and you have great fans in England. They love football. They respect the decisions.

"England is the only country where they get angry about diving. They are great football people. They don't disturb the life of the players. It's wonderful. But I am not so open to the business side.

"I am not popular in England because of the journalists. But I see many fans on the plane and they seem to like me, we speak about my passion for English clubs.''

The hot topic of debt in the English game is addressed.

Worried about the huge debt, a Uefa committee begins meeting from next Monday to formulate new rules. "We have three years to regulate the situation," he said. "The idea is not to kill the clubs but to help them have better balance. As David Gill says: 'the devil is in the details'.''

Yet United's highly-respected chief executive oversees a club dragged into debt by the Glazers. "Gill is a very good guy and perhaps United will resolve the debts in the future. If you put the same [strict] regulations for all the clubs in Europe, they will accept.'' Clubs risk expulsion from Europe otherwise.

"The philosophy to participate in our competitions is you must not spend more money than you receive. If United have €300 million and they spend €400 million – no! If Liverpool pay €60 million (interest) every year to the banks, it's a lot of money.

"Every owner has asked me for a better philosophy, for better transparency. In Germany, debts are not accepted. In England they are.

"Some of the chief executives are not OK with the chance of new regulations [on debt] because they don't want to change their business. The owners are OK with it. Abramovich hardly bought one player this year.

"By putting in new rules we will protect the business of Abramovich, Massimo Moratti [at Inter Milan] or Glazer. I am sure they want to sell but who will buy clubs with so many debts? Who would be that stupid?

"If you regulate the system, many people will be interested in buying. I am not a big economist but I am logical.''

Plenty else discussed, including Arsenal's youth policy, foreign ownership, Capello coaching England, the World Cup, use of TV replays, the Heysel Stadium disaster.

It ends on an odd note, considering talk of debts among English clubs.

We quickly move on to Cristiano Ronaldo's £80 million transfer to Real Madrid. "I said to Mr Perez: 'Florentino, I don't understand it, but if you have the money, I have no problem'.

"It's not Ronaldo's responsibility, but for me it is amazing, it's a lot of money and there is an inflationary effect for other clubs. It takes away the popularity of the football; 99 per cent of people don't understand €94 million for a player – and my job is to protect football.''

Good answer.

We thought that Real went into debt to buy Ronaldo. They don't have the money.