The two former leaders of UEFA and FIFA were cleared by Swiss justice on Friday in the fraud case.
The end of an endless soap opera. Michel Platini and the former president of Fifa, the Swiss Sepp Blatter, were acquitted on Friday in Switzerland in the fraud case which in 2015 shattered the Frenchman’s ambitions to reach the top of world football. The Federal Criminal Court of Bellinzona did not follow the requisitions of the prosecution, which had requested in mid-June respectively one year and eight months of suspended prison sentence, while the two accused claimed their innocence.
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Platini offensive throughout the trial
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For two weeks, the 67-year-old Frenchman and the 86-year-old Swiss had appeared to have “illegally obtained, to the detriment of Fifa, a payment of 2 million Swiss francs» (1,8 million d’euros) «in favor of Michel Platini“. Defense and prosecution agreed on one point: the triple Ballon d’Or advised Sepp Blatter well 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.
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But in January 2011, the former midfielder – who in the meantime became UEFA President (2007-2015) – “asserted a claim of 2 million Swiss francs“, described as “false invoiceby the prosecution. The two men insist on their side that they had from the start decided on an annual salary of one million Swiss francs, by a “accord the gentlemen» oral and without witnesses, without the finances of Fifa allowing the immediate payment to Mr. Platini.