At the call of his name, Michel Platini approached the desk before reading, in a flat voice, a short declaration: “I did not invest myself in the French, European and world football institutions to find myself before the Federal Criminal Court [TPF]declared to the Swiss judges of Bellinzona, Tuesday June 21, the former French president of the Union of European football associations (UEFA). I never had a red card. (…) On behalf of my family, I express my confidence in the justice of the court to restore the truth in this affair, to wash away what has been soiled and flouted for seven long years. »
On the tenth and last day of his trial and that of the former boss of the International Federation of Football Association (FIFA), Sepp Blatter, for “suspicions of fraud, unfair management, breach of trust and forgery in titles” , the ex-player – who celebrated his 67th birthday on Tuesday – was invited to make a final intervention, before the court rules on July 8 on their fate in the case of the alleged unfair payment of two million francs Swiss (1.9 million euros) made in February 2011 to the French by Mr. Blatter.
At 86, the former FIFA number one has retained all his eloquence. Between two oratorical flights and other reminders of his rank of « commandant » of the Swiss army and his ex-status“diplomatic representative of our country” in the world, Mr. Blatter reaffirmed that he had “clear conscience” : “I have been designated as a thief, deceiver, driven by criminal intentions, falsifier of documents. It is simply wrong. I am not that. »
This last day of the trial was dedicated to the “replies” of the Public Prosecutor of the Confederation (MPC) and FIFA, the plaintiff. Although he benefited from simultaneous translation to follow the proceedings in German, Mr. Platini took off his headphones for more than two hours to avoid having to hear the charge of the prosecutor Thomas Hildbrand and the lawyer for the FIFA, Catherine Hohl-Chirazi.
The prosecution denounces the “criminal energy” of the defendants
Recalling the ” gravity “of the offenses with which the defendants are accused, of which he denounced” criminal energy “, Mr. Hildbrand reiterated his wish to see the tandem condemned. While he requested a suspended sentence of one year and eight months in prison against the two men, the magistrate once again cut to pieces their thesis around this payment of 2011: that of an alleged balance of wages on the basis of an oral agreement sealed in 1998, under which the remuneration of Mr. Platini had been fixed at one million Swiss francs annually as adviser to the President of FIFA.
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