(Football news) Swiss prosecutors have charged Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini with fraud and other offenses after a six year investigation due to a controversial payment of £1.6m. The two are set to face a trial at federal criminal court in Bellinzona. In a statement by the Swiss federal prosecutors, they said that the payment unlawfully enriched Platini and damaged FIFA’s assets.
The case was first opened in September 2015, resulting in Blatter being out of office from FIFA’s President role earlier than expected along with Platini’s UEFA role. Back in January 2011, Platini had made a written request to FIFA to pay backdated additional salary for working as FIFA President’s advisor for Blatter from 1998 to 2002. Blatter authorized the payment within weeks but the evidence gathered from the attorney general’s office has shown that the payment was made without a legal basis.
Both Blatter and Platini have reiterated that there was a “verbal agreement” more than 20 years ago for the money to be paid with the 85 year old former FIFA President being charged with fraud, mismanagement, misappropriation of FIFA funds and forgery while Platini has been charged with fraud, misappropriation, forgery and for being an accomplice for Blatter’s mismanagement.
After hotel raids in May 2015, Sepp Blatter announced his decision to step down as FIFA President despite being elected for the fifth time. The FIFA ethics committee banned both Blatter and Platini for six years with the latter’s ban reduced to four by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on appeal. Since being cleared to return to duty in October 2019, Platini has been touted for a seat on the executive board of FIFPro.
For Blatter, the situation is a lot more grim as the former president has been in poor health and underwent a heart surgery last December, spending a week in an induced coma. He is facing another criminal proceeding for authorising a $1 million FIFA payment to Trinidad and Tobago in 2010 into the control of FIFA vice-president Jack Warner. A FIFA spokesperson said “As previously announced, FIFA has already taken steps in the Swiss courts to recover this sum from both individuals as it considers the money to have been illicitly paid by one to the other. If and when the funds are successfully recovered, they will be channelled back into football development, as they should have been in the first place.
"The decision of the Office of the Attorney General comes after an investigation into the matter by the Swiss authorities that has, to date, lasted approximately six years. Both Mr Blatter and Mr Platini were banned from football in 2015 in connection with this payment and that ban was upheld in the Court of Arbitration for Sport and by the Swiss Federal Tribunal. In 2020, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously declared Mr Platini's application inadmissible. FIFA will closely follow the next steps taken in this matter."
