Is this a mere coincidence or a backfire ignited by the advice of Michel Platini? Still, 24 hours after seeing the delicate case of Picasso’s lithograph resurface, the former president of UEFA, suspended from all football-related activity by Fifa in 2015 for more than four years, published a press release in the form of a counter-attack this Tuesday afternoon.
The former leader and footballer, 66, indicates in this one that he filed a complaint on November 17 with the Public Prosecutor of Paris against Gianni Infantino, the current president of Fifa for “active influence peddling”, as well as against Marco Villiger, former director of legal services of the international body, for “complicity in active influence peddling”.
The former Ballon d’Or has definitely been very present in the legal news in recent days. On Monday, Platini made headlines in the case of a lithograph by Picasso entitled “Football”, which he allegedly received as a bribe from the hands of the Russian oligarch, Alicher Ousmanov, at the occasion of Platini’s 61st birthday in 2016, with a view to interceding for the awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia.
Monday evening, via relatives, Platini admitted having received said lithograph from the Spanish painter, called “Football”. Already in 2014, the Sunday Times mentioned a work by Picasso offered to Platini. Two years later, a preliminary investigation for corruption had been carried out by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office. Platini was taken into custody in June 2019 as part of this investigation. His homes in Saint-Cloud (Hauts-de-Seine) and Cassis (Bouches-du-Rhône) had been searched.
The lithograph in question had been found in Platini’s second home “hanging on a wall in a bedroom”, according to relatives. Paradoxically, the investigators, who were looking for a painting, had not noticed the lithograph. Presumed innocent, Platini was not indicted.