Uefa presidential election:Michel Platini was elected yesterday to the most powerful post in European football, ending Lennart Johansson's 17-year reign as Uefa president with a narrow victory which is certain to spark conflict with the continent's leading clubs.

Platini, who won by 27 votes to 23, immediately faced calls to abandon his pledge to reduce the maximum number of Champions League entrants from a single country from four to three. It means the European game is entering an uncertain period; the English FA, supported by Premier League clubs anxious to protect what they earn in European competition, will join the other major European nations in opposing a pledge which was instrumental in securing the Frenchman the votes of smaller nations.

The Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, considered his compatriot's proposal unworkable. "I am scared that he has based his programme on something he will not be able to deliver. What he has promised does not look to me to be a big revolution."

Manchester United's Alex Ferguson was also opposed to the quota cut, saying, "The only way they can do that is by reducing the competition or allowing other countries one or two teams (more). All the top teams are there (now) and I don't think a lot needs to be done to it."

England, like Spain and Italy, currently receive four Champions League berths, two guaranteed and two via the qualifying competition, and the clubs will fight to cling to a status quo which rewards the leagues in the most lucrative TV markets.

Speaking after the election Platini reiterated his commitment to a more even distribution of Champions League places. The current structure is in place until 2008 and a review in April will determine what format will be adopted for the 2009-2010 season.

He said: "I have talked about finding a better equilibrium for the number of clubs and that's going to be from 2009-2010. A decision will be taken in April . . . I would like a better balance. It is something close to my heart."

The FA chief executive, Brian Barwick, acknowledged the issue needed to be addressed: "Michel Platini has been in the post only moments and there are lots of conversations to be had . . . We have got to look at the situation and I don't want to prejudge it."

The Premier League said it would continue to work with Uefa but privately it is confident the financial case for retaining the status quo, allied to the democratic safeguards in Uefa's constitution, will ensure Platini cannot force through the proposed change.

His triumph owed much to the intervention of Fifa president Sepp Blatter, who endorsed his protege in a speech to congress on Thursday, underlining again he is the master of football politics. Three times in the past decade Blatter and Johansson have contested the game's most powerful posts, directly or through their chosen candidates - each time the Swiss has won.

Many delegates here resented Blatter's intervention and Johansson referred to it directly as he addressed the electorate in a last attempt to hang on to his job. He said: "I cannot appreciate it when the Fifa president interferes in an election process here in Uefa. It's not the Fifa president, it is you the congress taking the decision."

It was not enough, however, and the Swede will have to be content with the post of honorary president.

There are also fears the election will transform Uefa into an outpost of Blatter's Zurich empire. Platini intends to move home from Paris to Geneva, near the Uefa headquarters in Nyon, and wants to become executive president. That would cast doubt on the future of yet another Swede, the present chief executive, Lars-Christer Olsson.

Three times European player of the year, Platini led the France to victory in Euro 1984, coached the team for four years and was joint president of the organising committee of the 1998 World Cup in France. Since 2000 he has had a seat on the Fifa executive committee. "When I was a footballer, when you won a great victory you received a cup and went on a lap of honour," he said last night. "This is a great victory for me but I'm not going to do a lap of honour because now the work starts." ... Guardian Service