Both Blatter and Platini have long denied wrongdoing and cited a verbal agreement they made for the money to be paid, over 20 years ago.
Swiss prosecutors charged former FIFA officials Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini with fraud and other offences on Tuesday, following a six-year investigation into a disputed USD 2 million payment. Blatter, 85, and Platini, 66, now face a trial in federal criminal court in Bellinzona within months. If found guilty, they could face several years in prison. The case was opened in September 2015, and Blatter was removed from his position as FIFA president ahead of schedule. It also effectively ended then-UEFA President Michel Platini’s bid to succeed his former mentor. Cases in Switzerland frequently take years to resolve.
“This payment damaged FIFA’s assets and unlawfully enriched Platini,” Swiss federal prosecutors said in a statement.
The case revolves around Platini’s written request to FIFA in January 2011 for backdated additional compensation for his work as a presidential adviser during Blatter’s first term, from 1998 to 2002. Blatter gave FIFA permission to make the payment within a few weeks. He was preparing to run for re-election against Qatar’s Mohamed bin Hammam, with Platini’s influence among European voters seen as crucial.
“The evidence gathered by the (attorney general’s office) has corroborated that this payment to Platini was made without a legal basis,” prosecutors said.
Both Blatter and Platini have long denied wrongdoing and cited a verbal agreement they made for the money to be paid, now more than 20 years ago. Blatter has been charged with fraud, mismanagement, misappropriation of FIFA funds, and document forgery. Platini is accused of fraud, misappropriation, forgery, and being an accomplice to Blatter’s alleged mismanagement. Fraud and forgery charges can result in prison sentences of up to five years.
“I view the proceedings at the federal criminal court with optimism — and hope that, with this, this story will come to an end and all the facts will be worked through cleanly,” Blatter said in a statement.
Platini, a French football legend, was not placed under formal investigation until last year, and the more serious charge of fraud was added against both men months later. Prosecutors filed criminal charges against Blatter in September 2015, ahead of a police raid on FIFA headquarters in Zurich on the day he and Platini attended a meeting of the football body’s executive committee.
This came four months after a massive US Department of Justice corruption investigation into world football was revealed with early-morning arrests of Americas officials at Zurich’s luxury hotels. In the aftermath of the hotel raids in May 2015, and just days after being elected FIFA president for the fifth time, Blatter announced his intention to resign and call another vote to find a successor. Platini had long been expected to be FIFA’s heir, but his campaign was derailed by a police visit to FIFA’s offices, despite the fact that he was not yet a suspect. Both men were suspended for several weeks by FIFA’s ethics committee before being banned for six years.
On appeal, the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced Platini’s ban to four years, and he was cleared to return to football duty in October 2019. He had been mentioned as a possible candidate for a seat on the executive board of FIFPRO, the global group of football player unions. Blatter has been ill, and the final round of questioning by Swiss investigators has been postponed until August.