Swiss prosecution appeals 2022 acquittal and asks for 20 months suspended sentences for both ex-leaders

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Blatter and Platini back on trial in Switzerland over FIFA fraud allegations

Former FIFA president Joseph Blatter and UEFA chief Michel Platini face a retrial in Switzerland this week following an appeal by the prosecution. Both were acquitted in July 2022 of fraud, forgery, embezzlement and mismanagement, but the Swiss courts are reopening the case and seeking a 20-month prison sentence suspended for two years.

At the centre of the dispute is the payment of two million Swiss francs (about 1.8 million euros) that Blatter ordered in favour of Platini when they held their respective positions at FIFA and UEFA. The prosecution alleges that the payment was fabricated, saying Monday that both former leaders ‘invented that FIFA owed Platini or that he was entitled to receive this amount for advice’.

A trial with repercussions for FIFA

Blatter, 88, who led FIFA for 17 years until his resignation in 2015, has been upbeat ahead of the retrial. ‘I'm very positive,’ he told the media ahead of the hearing, assuring that he still sees the case as a persecution against him.

For his part, Michel Platini is also confident that justice will once again find in his favour. His lawyer, Dominic Nellen, defended the legality of the payment and recalled that the court of first instance had already concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prove fraud.

The former French official, who worked as an adviser to Blatter between 1998 and 2002, has insisted that the money received was a legitimate verbal contract, although the prosecution and FIFA maintain that it was an improper payment to the detriment of the football body.

A scandal that changed FIFA's future

The case came to light in 2015, in the midst of the campaign to elect Blatter's successor as FIFA president. Platini, then the leading candidate, saw his aspirations crumble following the revelation of the payment, forcing him to withdraw from the race.

Since then, suspicions have suggested that Blatter himself may have leaked the information in order to stop Platini's candidacy. The manoeuvre would have favoured Gianni Infantino, who eventually took over the presidency of the body.