July 27 – Former UEFA chief Michel Platini has reacted with outrage after a criminal complaint he brought against FIFA president Gianni Infantino in the French courts 18 months ago for alleged influence peddling was bizarrely transferred to the Swiss justice system.
The public prosecutor’s office in Paris confirmed the move saying Platini’s complaint “was the object of an official denunciation lodged with Swiss justice authorities.”
Once Infantino’s boss when they occupied the top two positions at UEFA, Platini has long pointed to a conspiracy to stop him from gaining the FIFA presidency which went instead to Infantino.
Platini has always insisted he was innocent over that infamous CHF2 million “disloyalty payment” to Sepp Blatter that shattered his dream of taking over FIFA after Blatter’s fall.
Platini said in a press statement that the latest decision was “outrageous”.
“I know that Switzerland is not going to look into this: my first complaint filed in Switzerland was shelved without a single investigation taking place, and on absurd grounds,” he said.
Platini has been at odds for several years with Infantino and his entourage, whom he suspects of having ousted him from the race for the FIFA presidency in 2015 by alerting Swiss prosecutors to the 2011 “disloyal payment” that ultimately led to the Frenchman and Blatter both being banned.
Platini’s lawyer pointed out on Wednesday that the offence of influence peddling, which exists in France, “does not exist in Swiss law”, and that the decision to send the complaint to Bern was therefore “legally incomprehensible and morally confusing”.
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