ZAGREBZAGREB Jan 30 (Reuters) - UEFA president Michel Platini can reflect on the considerable achievements of his first year in the job when he delivers a keynote speech to the 32nd UEFA Congress on Thursday.
Twelve months since ending Lennart Johansson's 17-year spell at the helm at last year's congress in Duesseldorf, Platini has made big strides in unifying European soccer's often warring factions.
One senior UEFA source told Reuters on Wednesday: "He has done very well, he has stopped all the squabbles, big and small with FIFA and we have concentrated on football matters, what goes on on the field and in the stadiums.
"The time for a change had come last year, and UEFA has benefited, and I think football has benefited as a result of this too."
The most significant development since he took office has been the end of hostilities with the G14 group of Europe's richest and most powerful clubs, who now support, and will become part of, the new planned European Club Association.
The G14 has said it will dissolve itself, and in doing so will withdraw all its outstanding court cases.
Part of this process will also see, for the first time, UEFA and FIFA making financial contributions for players to appear in the European Championship and World Cup.
Another move has been the setting up of the Professional Football Strategy Council involving clubs, UEFA, and others to deal directly with issues concerning the professional game.
Platini has also pushed through changes to the Champions League with more champions from middle-ranking countries due to take part from 2009-10.
MORE REVENUE
The UEFA Cup competition is also being revamped along the lines of the Champions League to provide more revenue to competing clubs.
The former French international has managed to smooth over the cracks which developed between Europe's politicians and the game's governing bodies, most notably becoming a link between FIFA and the European Union.
He has convinced EU governments of sport's specific nature over issues such as rules on the number of locally trained players, while at the same time convincing them to help solve problems such as violence, racism and match-fixing.
While Platini's speech will be the centrepiece of the Congress at Zagreb's Expo hall, there will also be a report into the feasibility study of expanding the European Championship from 16 teams to either 20 or 24 teams from 2016.
This does not have the support of every member of the executive committee, a number of whom favour retaining the more manageable 16 finalists. (Reporting by Mike Collett; Editing by Sonia Oxley)