Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, once the chiefs of the world and European football, were cleared Friday over a suspected fraudulent payment that shook the sport and torpedoed their time at the top.
Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court in the southern city of
Bellinzona acquitted the pair in a trial following a mammoth investigation that
began in 2015 and lasted six years.
Former FIFA president Blatter, 86, and Platini, 67, listened
in silence as the clerk read out the judgement which rejected the prosecution’s
request for a suspended prison sentence of a year and eight months.
“A neutral court has finally found that no offence has been
committed in this case. My client is completely cleared and relieved as a
result,” said Platini’s lawer Dominic Nellen.
Former French football great Platini released a short
statement claiming to have “won the first round”, while alluding to alleged
political and judicial manipulation intended to remove him from power.
“In this case, there are culprits who did not appear during
this trial. Let them count on me: we will find one other,” he said.
Platini was employed as an adviser to Blatter between 1998
and 2002.
Blatter told the court that when he took over as FIFA
president in 1998, world football’s governing body had a bad record and he
thought someone who had been a top figure in playing the game could help.
He turned to Platini for advice, which involved political
trips, reforming the international calendar and helping the national
federations financially.
They signed a contract in 1999 for an annual remuneration of
300,000 Swiss francs, which was paid in full by FIFA.
But the pair were tried over a two million Swiss franc
($2.05 million) payment in 2011 to Platini, who was then in charge of European
football’s governing body UEFA.
‘Gentleman’s agreement’:
Former world football chief Blatter told the court that the
pair had struck a “gentleman’s agreement” for Platini to be paid a million
Swiss francs a year.
Platini had jokingly asked Blatter for a million, without
specifying the currency, and the then-FIFA president agreed, with part of the
money — outside of the contract they signed — to be paid “later”, the court
heard.
The remainder would be settled when FIFA’s fragile finances
allowed it, Blatter said, in a deal concluded orally and without witnesses.
Platini was accused of having submitted to FIFA in 2011 an
allegedly fictitious invoice for a claimed debt still outstanding for his
advisory work.
Both were accused of fraud and forgery of a document.
Blatter was accused of misappropriation and criminal mismanagement, while
Platini was accused of participating in those offences.
Blatter and Platini maintained their innocence throughout
their trial, which ran from June 8 to 22.
But the court considered that the fraud was “not established
with a likelihood bordering on certainty”, and therefore applied the general
principle of criminal law according to which “the doubt must benefit the
accused”.
The indictment was filed by the Office of the Attorney General
of Switzerland.
Both FIFA and UEFA are headquartered in Switzerland, in
Zurich and Nyon respectively
Power Drama:
Platini and Blatter were banned from the sport at the very
moment when the former seemed ideally-placed to succeed Blatter at the helm of
world football’s governing body.
The two allies became rivals as Platini grew impatient to
take over, while Blatter’s tenure was brought to a swift end by a separate 2015
FIFA corruption scandal investigated by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Joseph “Sepp” Blatter joined FIFA in 1975, became its
general secretary in 1981 and the president of world football’s governing body
in 1998.
He was forced to stand down in 2015 and was banned by FIFA
for eight years, later reduced to six, over ethics breaches for authorising the
payment to Platini, allegedly made in his own interests rather than FIFA’s.
Platini is regarded among world football’s greatest-ever
players. He won the Ballon d’Or, considered the most prestigious individual
award, three times — in 1983, 1984 and 1985.
Platini was UEFA’s president from January 2007 to December
2015.
He appealed against his initial eight-year suspension at the
Court of Arbitration for Sport, which reduced it to four years.
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