Ex-soccer bosses Blatter and Platini on fraud charges
Pair face high-profile trial over £1.6m payment
FORMER FIFA bosses Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini were charged with fraud yesterday after a six-year police probe.
Platini was questioned by detectives in 2019 and now he and Blatter will face a high-profile trial before a judge in Switzerland.
Prosecutors said Blatter illegally arranged a transfer of £1.6million to France legend Platini in 2011.
They allege that the payment “damaged FIFA’s assets and unlawfully enriched Platini”.
The case opened in September 2015 with Blatter and Platini both banned from football for six years in 2016 over the payment, which was made with Blatter’s approval for work done a decade earlier.
The affair ended Blatter’s 17-year spell in charge of FIFA and thenUEFA president Platini’s campaign to succeed him. Blatter, 85, and
Platini, 66, have always denied any wrongdoing. Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General has accused them of “fraud, in the alternative of misappropriation, in the further alternative of criminal mismanagement as well as of forgery of a document”.
Platini was also charged as an accomplice. Blatter said: “I look forward to the trial with optimism and I hope that this story will come to an end and that all the facts will be dealt with properly.”
Regarding the payment, he said: “It was based on an oral contract that regulated Platini’s advisory activities for FIFA between 1998 and 2002.” Blatter said the payment was delayed because FIFA was unable to pay the full amount and Platini only made his claim for it in 2010. He said the payments were approved by “all responsible FIFA bodies” and Platini paid the tax.
Platini did not respond to a request for comment but last month his lawyer Dominic Nellen said: “The investigation should have been discontinued long ago. There are enough witness reports and documents in the case files that prove my client’s innocence.” The OAG revealed Platini worked as a consultant for then FIFA president Blatter from 1998 to 2002.
I hope this story ends and all the facts will be dealt with properly
SEPP BLATTER ON FACING TRIAL