By Andrew Warshaw
April 13 – After an investigation lasting six and half years, Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, the respective former heads of FIFA and UEFA, will go on trial for fraud and other offenses in June, Switzerland’s federal criminal court have confirmed.
The trial, which promises to be one of the most high profile in the history of football politics, will be before a panel of three judges over 11 days starting June 8.
Both former powerbrokers have been charged over the infamous “disloyal payment” that brought their careers crashing down and could face jail if found guilty.
The case concerns the CHF2 million payment made by to Platini in 2010 on the instruction of Blatter and covered a verbal agreement between the two for consultancy by Platini when the Frenchman was working as a presidential adviser in Blatter’s first term, from 1998-2002.
The payment was made just a few months before Blatter was re-elected to the FIFA presidency in 2011. Platini had been expected to stand in that election but in the end didn’t run for office.
Both Blatter and Platini have long claimed they did absolutely nothing wrong and that the money represented backdated salary. Indeed, Blatter has made the point that it was money owed and was never a secret payment since it was reported to the Swiss tax authorities and social security was deducted from the payment.
The judicial case was opened in September 2015, ending Blatter’s reign as FIFA president prematurely and wrecking Platini’s ambition to succeed his former mentor.
The FIFA ethics committee banned both of them for six years though Platini’s ban was later reduced to four years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on appeal.
Prosecutors believe the two officials, once the most powerful duo in world football, lied as to the reason for the payment made, especially since it was close to the re-election of Blatter, in June 2011, when he stood unopposed.
Blatter was charged with fraud, mismanagement, misappropriation of FIFA funds and forgery of a document. Platini was charged with fraud, misappropriation, forgery and as an accomplice to Blatter’s alleged mismanagement.
Blatter, who turned 86 last month, and Platini, who turns 67 in June, cited a verbal agreement more than 20 years ago for the money to be paid eventually.
But federal prosecutors said last year when the two men were indicted: “The evidence gathered by the (attorney general’s office) has corroborated that this payment to Platini was made without a legal basis.”
In 2015, the FIFA ethics committee suspended both men from any football-related activity for six years. Platini’s ban was later reduced, he has so far resisted taking up any senior role in football, instead concentrating on trying to clear his name completely.
Blatter had a serious bout of ill health after undergoing heart surgery in December 2020, which delayed a final round of questioning by Swiss authorities.
At the time of his indictment, Blatter said: “I look forward to the trial before the Federal Criminal Court with optimism and I hope that this story will come to an end and that all the facts will be dealt with properly.”
Prosecutors say Platini, who has long claimed a conspiracy theory against him, demanded the payment “over eight years after the termination of his advisory activity”.
But Platini’s Swiss lawyer, Dominic Nellen, said he was looking forward to the trial.
“We are confident that the outcome of the trial will establish the perfect good faith of Mr. Michel Platini in this affair, which has been fabricated to remove him from the presidency of FIFA,” he was quoted as writing in an agency report on the story.
A further wrinkle in the story is that news emerged last week that last November Platini filed his own criminal complaint in France against FIFA president Gianni Infantino for ‘influence-peddling’ – defined as using influence to obtain a favourable decision from a public official, in exchange for undue advantage.
See: Platini files criminal complaint against Infantino
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