Blatter and Platini sued by Fifa
Fifa filed court claims in Switzerland yesterday against Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini to recover more than
NZ$3 million from an irregular payment that led to both men being banned from international football.
Fifa said any money recovered, plus interest, would be ‘‘fully channelled back into football development, which is where the money should have gone in the first place’’.
As Fifa president in 2011, Blatter approved paying Platini’s request to receive uncontracted salary for advisory work done from
1998-2002. Elected president of European football body Uefa in
2007, Platini was widely expected to succeed Blatter at Fifa.
Platini’s Fifa campaign was effectively ended when details of the payment emerged in 2015 in fallout from American and Swiss federal investigations of international football.
The former France great has consistently denied wrongdoing and said he paid taxes and social charges – potentially amounting to hundreds of thousands of Swiss francs – to Swiss authorities due on the Fifa payment.
Platini served a four-year ban confirmed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Blatter’s sixyear ban expires in October 2021.
Any Platini comeback can be blocked by Fifa code of ethics rules, which requires him to pay a fine of 60,000 Swiss francs (NZ$92,000) imposed four years ago.
Platini has declined to pay while he is challenging his ban at the European Court of Human Rights. Non-payment of any restitution ordered by a fresh Swiss court ruling could also delay his planned return to football.
‘‘They [Fifa] will try to use what they want so that I don’t come back, I am sure,’’ Platini said in October.