‘Michel Platini stood over me’… The New Saints owner, Mike Harris, opens up about wine-fuelled disaster

EXCLUSIVE: Mike Harris couldn’t believe his eyes as Michel Platini stepped right over him during a truly outrageous moment.

The owner of The New Saints has cemented his status as being one of the most charismatic chairmen in all of football. With a love for the sport coursing through his veins, the Welshman exhibits his passion at any opportunity, going above and beyond to help his side build a presence in Europe.

However, on one occasion, the popular figure took things a little too far, much to the amusement of his adoring fans.

Mike Harris fell over in front of Michel Platini

Mike Harris has recently starred in the entertaining documentary: Road to Europe – The Mike Harris Story.

The episode takes viewers on a journey through the maverick’s memories, from sacking a manager while he was in the shower to his team’s crazy away day in Montenegro to crashing his buggy on what was a rather dramatic 60th birthday for the chairman.

However, the most dramatic anecdote from the programme had to be what occurred during a Champions League draw in Switzerland, where, after a few bottles of wine, he ended up making an embarrassing blunder in front of Michel Platini.

When asked about the incident during an exclusive interview with Sporf, Harris reminisced: “It was a regular pilgrimage for myself and Ian Williams to go to the draw. You have to treat it as though it’s the last time that you’ll ever be in it. You only get invited if you have won your league or you’ve qualified for Europe. It should rightfully be a special occasion, and clubs should respect it at whatever level you come in at. We’ve always come in at the very early stages, but it’s important that you do associate with all the other clubs that make the great competition what it is.

“UEFA in those early days, was extremely generous with food, and even more generous with alcohol. Over time, the ability to get hold of alcohol, has sadly declined; it’s probably more regulated in how you get hold of it. But in those days, you just picked up a bottle of wine and supped at it, while sitting in the warm Geneva sunshine, in front of the lake.

“Probably four or five bottles in, sitting at these high tables, I was sitting with my back to the lake, Ian was sitting on the opposite side to me. Bottles had accumulated on the table, and there were glasses from where people had joined us. Ian decided he needed to go to the toilet. As he got up, he put his arms on the table, which went forward and pushed me off my stool. The bottles and glasses all went over my head. To my horror, as I looked up, Michel Platini was striding along the grass. He stood over me and walked off. He didn’t help pick me up. He looked and thought, ‘Let me get away from those two as quick as I can’.”

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Mike Harris on Ken McKenna chasing Tomi Morgan

During his time with The New Saints, Harris has witnessed an array of hysterical moments, but it’s fair to say that watching Ken McKenna, who was the manager of the club at the time, sprinting after a rival head coach, is right up there with the best of them.

He chuckled: “Tomi Morgan had been doing some casual reporting for the BBC, and had mentioned something about the title chase which was going on, and obviously Tomi was managing Welshpool at the time, which was the completely opposite end of the table, but had basically said something about Ken, and the BBC played it back to Ken, before the game against Welshpool. I think it was probably set up by the BBC, and that’s where the term, ‘The wonky-eyed maggot’ came about, by Ken McKenna. He said, ‘That wonky-eyed maggot needs to concentrate on the other end of the table’.

“That Saturday, at half-time or full-time, Tomi Morgan was very keen to get away, and Ken was very keen to catch up with him. The last I saw was Kenny chasing Tomi down the pitch towards the changing rooms, and Tomi was going as fast as he could, and Ken couldn’t quite catch him, so I remember him throwing his biro and it bouncing off the back of Tomi’s head.”

Craig Harrison features in The Road to Europe – The Mike Harris Story, a football documentary like no other, which is available to buy or rent now on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.

This isn’t just another football documentary. It follows Mike Harris, a man who’s taken a small village club to the edge of European football. But it’s more than the game – it’s about people, chaos, and the wild moments they face every week. With raw access to Mike’s world, it’s a mix of drama, humour, and high-stakes graft from the dressing room to the boardroom.

Featured Image Credit: The New Saints