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Since this Wednesday, June 8 in Switzerland, and after six years of an investigation crossed by suspicions of conspiracy, Michel Platini and the ex-president of Fifa Sepp Blatter appear in the case of suspicious payment which broke their career in 2015.
The Federal Criminal Court of Bellinzona (south-east) opened the trial until June 22 of the 66-year-old Frenchman and the 86-year-old Swiss for “ scam », « unfair management », « breach of trust » et « wrong in titles “, for a decision expected on July 8.
The prosecution accuses the two former leaders of having “illegally obtained, to the detriment of Fifa, a payment of 2 million Swiss francs” (1.8 million euros) “ in favor of Michel Platini “. Both targeted by other procedures, in France for the triple Ballon d’Or (about the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar) and in Switzerland for Sepp Blatter, they incur five years of imprisonment or a fine.
Football pariahs
The two defendants will be able to explain themselves in the case which made them pariahs of football. Defense and prosecution agree on one point: the Frenchman advised well Sepp Blatter between 1998 and 2002, during the latter’s first term at the head of Fifa, and the two men signed a contract in 1999 agreeing to an annual remuneration of 300,000 Swiss francs, fully paid by Fifa. But in January 2011, more than eight years after the end of his advisory activity “, the ex-captain of the Blues” asserted a claim of 2 million Swiss francs “, acquitted by the football body ” with the competition by Sepp Blatter, notes the prosecution.
For the prosecution, it is a payment ” unfounded », obtained by inducing « cleverly mistaken » the internal controls of Fifa by false assertions of the two leaders, which is the key criterion of the scam. The two men insist on their side that they had from the outset decided on an annual salary of one million Swiss francs, orally and without witnesses, without the finances of Fifa allowing the immediate payment to Mr. Platini.
Michael Platini considers himself the victim of a plot to block his path to the presidency of Fifa and denounces in particular the murky role of the current boss of world football elected in 2016, Gianni Infantino, in the triggering of the investigation. Former right-hand man of the French at UEFA, the Italian-Swiss has been targeted since 2020 by a procedure relating to three secret meetings with the former chief of the prosecution, in which a magistrate and the ex-legal director of Fifa come to be charged. But the Swiss justice having so far refused to join the two files, the debates should quickly refocus on the reality of the oral agreement of the two accused. As a civil party, Fifa intends to be reimbursed for the salary and social charges paid in 2011.
The fall of Michel Platini
When on July 29, 2015, Michel Platini, then president of UEFA, announced that he was a candidate for the election for the presidency of Fifa, he was the big favorite. But the sequel will not go in his direction. First there will be this famous payment of 1.8 million euros from Sepp Blatter, president of Fifa, to the French in 2011 for work as an adviser completed in 2002, without a written contract, which will be of interest first Swiss civil justice, then FIFA sports justice. In December 2015, Platini and Blatter were suspended for 8 years from “ any football-related activity by FIFA’s Ethics Committee. Suspensions which in 2016 will be reduced to six years on appeal. Then, with regard to Platini, to four years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which recognizes the ” validity “of the oral contract linking Fifa to Platini but” is unconvinced of the legitimacy of the payment. Then, as part of the investigation into the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar in 2022, Platini will be taken into custody in June 2019 for ” a secret meeting at the Elysée Palace on November 23, 2010, in which he took part in the company of Mr. Sarkozy and Sheikh Tamim ben Hamad al-Thani (who has since become Emir of Qatar). No charge has yet been brought against him in the investigations carried out since 2016 by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) for “ private corruption », « conspiracy », « influence peddling and concealment of influence peddling ».
(with AFP)