DUESSELDORF, Jan 25 - FIFA president Sepp Blatter reiterated on Thursday his personal support for Michel Platini over Lennart Johansson, less than 24 hours before the vote for the UEFA presidency.

Blatter told UEFA delegates at a packed congress hall that he had sympathy for Platini, the 51-year-old former French international who is challenging the 77-year-old Swede Johansson.

The FIFA boss stopped short of making a detailed case for Platini, however, and he also offered warm words for Johansson, who has been president since 1990 and hopes to win another term in Friday's poll of the 52 voting national association presidents.

"I do not have a vote and I cannot be the referee either but I do have the right to state my view," Blatter, the head of world soccer's governing body, said on the opening day of the UEFA Congress.

"This is nothing negative, and it does not reduce the merits of Lennart Johansson, but I do have sympathy for the man who has been accompanying me since 1998, for Michel Platini."

Johansson has been chairman of FIFA's World Cup organising committees since 1997 and Blatter paid tribute to the Swede for his help in making, in particular, the 2006 tournament in Germany such a success.

"I have to thank this man who in 2006 and during many World Cups was chairman of the organising committee, and that is Lennart Johansson," Blatter said to applause from the hall.

"We owe you gratitude, recognition and respect."

The first day of the Congress was completed by opening speeches and the awards of UEFA orders of merit. They included posthumous awards to footballers Ferenc Puskas of Hungary and Giacinto Facchetti of Italy, who both died last year.

The Congress continues on Friday with the presidential election the highlight of the day's agenda.