ON Friday morning, a leaked 59-man short list of 2015 Ballon d’Or nominees was doing the rounds on social media and in European papers. The official list is not due until this coming week and there is reason to be a bit skeptical. Last season the list featured 23 names, few can explain why it should suddenly have ballooned to 59 (and, as you might imagine, FIFA have rather more important matters to sort out right now).

Still, it brought good news for Arsene Wenger, as his reserve goalkeeper, David Ospina, was included on it. Wenger has described him as “world-class” – much like his other keeper, Petr Cech – prompting howls of derision from the media. (Yet, unlike Cech, the Colombian did make the list, alongside Massimo Luongo, who spent most of 2015 played for Swindon in League 1, but at least was named player of the tournament at the Asian Cup.)

Ospina – and especially Wenger’s decision to play him a ahead of Petr Cech last Tuesday against Olympiacos in the Champions’ League – was the main talking point at London Colney where Arsenal hosted the media ahead of today’s clash with Manchester United. Too much of a talking point, according to Wenger, who repeatedly threatened to walk out, if the line of questioning remained stuck in the Ospina-Cech groove.

“Stop that story or we stop the press conference,” he said, after question No 5 on the Ospina-Cech controversy.

But maybe Wenger should play the game, rather than saying that if you believe Arsenal “lost because of Ospina” he would “question your knowledge of the game.” Perhaps a simple, dumbed-down narrative – Arsenal lost because Wenger is arrogant and maybe slightly made and picked a virtual no-name like Ospina instead of good, old reliable Petr Cech who we’ve known for more than a decade – is easier to handle.

That storyline is silly, of course. Ospina may not be the second coming of Lev Yashin, but he started 21 games for Arsenal this calendar year, which is more than the 16 Cech started for Arsenal and his old club, Chelsea. The Colombian has kept 10 clean sheets, the Czech, nine, in fewer games (but then he also had the luxury of playing behind Chelsea’s back four last season, rather than Arsenal’s). The bottom line is that there is isn’t an abyss of

talent between the two. And if Wenger thinks it make sense to get Ospina games – particularly since Cech has been ever-present in the league just once in his career – perhaps it’s not so outlandish.

After all, the last two Champions League winners used one keeper in the league and another in Europe.

But nobody wants to hear that. It’s simpler to treat Wenger like some kind of eccentric weirdo, fuelled by Gallic arrogance and the need to be idiosyncratic. And maybe it suits him, too. The more we talk about Ospina and Cech, the less we discuss the cash reserves approaching a quarter of a billion pounds, the perennial sense of treading water and the prospect of a group stage exit.

THERE'S a school of thought whereby if Michel Platini makes it to October 26, he’ll be home-free in his run to the FIFA presidency.

That’s the date by which candidates must declare their intent and find five member nations willing to back them. If he gets to that point without being suspended by FIFA’s Ethics Committee – he’s currently being investigated after revelations that he was questioned by Swiss authorities for receiving a £1.3 million payment from FIFA in 2011 for work done nine years earlier – then all he needs to do is pass an “integrity check”, which by that stage ought to be a formality.

That’s the plan from the Platini camp anyway. It’s a broad coalition generally made up of three types of people. There are folks who genuinely think that Platini would make a great president, based mostly on his stewardship of UEFA: an organization that has been hugely successful commerically (and generally untainted by scandal).

There are some who simply do what their local footballing power broker tells them to do – yes, Jack Warner may be long gone, but FIFA elections are still about voting blocs and a number of them, for varying reasons are in the Platini camp. And, finally, there are those who just want some certainty, stability and electability and, until recently, nobody could match the Frenchman.

It’s that last group of voters who are pretty much in play following last week’s revelations. And it’s not a coincidence that Platini’s backers have stepped up their efforts. A number of FAs – from England to Germany – have reiterated their (conditional) support. And, on Friday, out came the big guns. Four major FIFA sponsors – in rat-tat- tat fashion, one after the other – urged President Sepp Blatter to step down. Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Visa and Budweiser all issued statements saying it would be in the interest of the game if he stepped aside.

The timing isn’t coincidental. Those are four corporations from the United States – where the Department of Justice investigation has been ongoing. All of them have been lobbied hard by some of the people backing Platini. The idea is to minimise Blatter’s influence on the election: he may not be running again, but he can throw his weight behind an anti-Platini candidate or do enough to try to derail him.

All of this though will hinge on whether the Swiss authorities who charged Blatter find enough to go after Platini as well. And whether it happens by October 26. If that date comes and goes, we’ll be in

an almighty mess. Even if there are other candidates in the field, odds are the election will be postponed further, likely until the summer or beyond.

What that means is that those much talked about reforms won’t be happening for a long while. And the questions that need to be asked about the World Cup hosts? Not just Qatar, but Russia as well? There will be nobody with the authority to ask them.