LONDON, Jan 19 - When Swede Lennart Johansson was voted UEFA president in April 1990, the biggest upheaval in European soccer's history was underway.

Next Friday, the 52 members who now comprise the European confederation, the richest and most influential in world soccer, will decide at UEFA's Congress in Duesseldorf whether they want Johansson, now 77, to lead them for a fifth successive term.

The alternative is to bid a fond farewell to the popular and avuncular leader and replace him with a charismatic man 26 years his junior -- Frenchman Michel Platini.

For the first time since he was elected at the Congress in Malta 16 years ago, beating Freddy Rumo of Switzerland by 20-15 votes, Johansson is facing a serious threat to his position.

Fit and well again after health scares, Johansson says he has the stamina to go on for years. He is also driven by a fierce desire to keep Platini out of his presidential chair.

Now a little wider around the middle and chubbier in the jowl, Platini may no longer cut quite the dash he did as one of the greatest players in the world in the 1980s, when he led France to victory in Euro 84 and lifted titles with Juventus.

However, the 51-year-old is again close to claiming another of soccer's glittering prizes.

Being elected the president of UEFA has none of the romance of lifting silverware in front of adoring fans, scoring great goals or bamboozling defenders with audacious skills. But in the rarefied air of soccer politics, it is just one step below the highest rung of all -- the presidency of FIFA.

BLATTER INFLUENCE

Johansson stood for that office himself in 1998 and lost to Sepp Blatter of Switzerland.

Blatter, despite his best efforts to appear neutral, seems to be in Platini's corner -- and his perceived support for his one-time FIFA personal advisor could tip the vote Platini's way.

The question that delegates need to resolve by next Friday is, of course: what exactly are we voting for?

The election manifestos of the two candidates are remarkably similar in many respects, with Johansson naturally stressing the need for continuity to finish the job he started.

Platini is calling for a more modern approach to take UEFA and European soccer to new, higher levels.

The principal differences centre on the Champions League. Johansson wants to maintain the status quo of a competition he helped create -- and the cornerstone of so much of the wealth UEFA has generated since it began in 1992.

Platini has called for a change to its structure with the major countries like England, Italy, Spain, Germany and France, relinquishing one of their three or four places. These would instead be allocated to the champions of a country who, at present, have to qualify for the lucrative group stages.

TWO MINDS

Platini's plans have inevitably split delegates into those from the bigger countries who do not want to concede any of their Champions League slots and those from the smaller ones who might benefit.

However, smaller countries are caught in two minds.

Their champions might be involved, perhaps briefly, but their vital financial handouts from the competition which helps to boost the budgets of their FAs could diminish if fewer "glamour" teams from the bigger countries take part.

Both Johansson and Platini stress their commitment to grass roots soccer, fighting xenophobia and racism, keeping soccer out of the hands of criminals or money launderers, maintaining the spirit of sportsmanship on the field of play, keeping dialogue open with all of soccer's stakeholders.

Both stress the need for a better relationship with the European Union and the imperative that soccer matter are dealt with by soccer's governors and not the courts.

In a sense, neither man needs to worry too much on how UEFA itself is run. It is, generally speaking, a well-oiled modern management machine.

What is at stake is whether the innately conservative men who run the sport are willing to embrace a change and hand considerable power to a former player -- or close ranks and maintain the status quo.

Johansson represents a familiar, safe option while Platini a somewhat uncertain future.

By 1990, after the dark days of the 1970s and 1980s which culminated in the Heysel Stadium disaster, European soccer was ready for change -- and Johansson, with his former general secretary Gerhard Aigner and others, brought that change about.

Soccer always faces huge challenges and the delegates must decide next Friday who they think is best equipped to deal with them: the safe Swede or the flamboyant Frenchman.