UEFA has hired former CNN sports presenter Pedro Pinto as its head of press relations with special responsibility for its president Michel Platini.
UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino says Pinto's duties include ''coordinating institutional communications relating especially to the UEFA president.''
Pinto will begin work in mid-January, at the start of a year in which Platini is expected to announce if he will run for the FIFA presidency in 2015.
Pinto has presented football ceremonies including UEFA's Champions League draw in Monaco and FIFA's world player of the year gala in Zurich.
Infantino says after a meeting of UEFA's executive committee that Pinto will work alongside David Farrelly, who remains head of its communications department.
