This summer, Sepp Blatter has reason to smile. Already relaxed, like Michel Platini, on July 8, heads of“fraud, unfair management, breach of trust and false titles” by the Federal Criminal Court (TPF) of Bellinzona in the case of the payment of 2 million Swiss francs (2 million euros) made to the ex-captain of the Blues in 2011, the former Swiss president of the International Federation football (FIFA), 86, is cleared in another case.
According to information from Mondethe Swiss Public Ministry of the Confederation (MPC) officially closed a criminal investigation opened against Mr. Blatter, in May 2020, for “suspicions of unfair management”.
The MPC confirms to Monde that this criminal procedure was classified by decision of August 4, the classification order having not yet entered into force”.
This survey was aimed at “$1 million interest-free, collateral-free loan” paid from a FIFA account, in April 2010, to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation, then under the control of Jack Warner, former president of the Confederation of Football of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (Concacaf). The latter was suspended for life by FIFA and charged with corruption by the American justice system in 2015.
The abandonment of the proceedings against MM. Valcke and Kattner
The lawsuits for “suspicions of unfair management” which also targeted, since May 2020, the two ex-lieutenants of Mr. Blatter, the Frenchman Jérôme Valcke, former secretary general of FIFA (2007-2015), and Markus Kattner, the former financial director, were also abandoned by the MPC.
In June 2020, the judicial institution had closed a first criminal investigation against Mr. Blatter on a controversial television contract, signed by the Swiss in 2005 with the Caribbean Football Union, at the time directed by Mr. Warner.
Then, in January 2021, the prosecution had closed another part of the procedure against the former number two in world football: it concerned a private jet flight carried out by Jack Warner in 2007.
The decision of the MPC to close another investigation targeting Mr. Blatter and his ex-lieutenants comes as the prosecution and FIFA chaired by Gianni Infantino, civil party, filed, in mid-July, an “appeal announcement” with the TPF in the matter of the payment made to Mr. Platini. Both the MPC and FIFA are waiting for the written reasons for the judgment before confirming this appeal.
The acquittal of Messrs. Blatter and Platini by the TPF, after seven years of investigation, constitutes a disavowal for the MPC, which has opened around twenty procedures in connection with FIFA since 2015
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