Swiss court acquits Blatter and Platini in FIFA corruption case

Federal Criminal Court of BellinzonaSwiss disowned This Friday, charges of corruption and fraud against the former FIFA president, Joseph Platter French football legend and former European Union president, Michael Platinum.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office had indicted the former person responsible for regulating the sport globally for 17 years and the former Juventus star Illegally arranging FIFA to pay the French two million Swiss francs ($2.06 million) in 2011. From the outset, the two denied the charges against them.

It is worth noting that this case means that the Swiss ended his term in the International Football Association and also held the dream of the Frenchman to take over the reins of the entity as his successor.

For two weeks, the 67-year-old Frenchman and the 86-year-old Swiss appeared because they “illegally obtained, at the expense of FIFA, 2 million Swiss francs in favor of Miguel Platini”. The Swiss announced that the accusation in favor of Platini was the result of “Gentleman’s Agreement” between the two when he asked the former athlete to be his technical advisor in 1998.

Platini told the court that Platini held the position from 1998 to 2002 with an annual salary of 300,000 Swiss francs, the largest amount that FIFA could afford given the organization’s money problems at the time. He explained that “the rest of the salary, one million euros annually, will be paid later.” “This guy was just with me and he was worth a million dollars“, He expressed.

When Blatter agreed to pay, he was campaigning for re-election against Mohammed bin Hammam of Qatar. Platini, then UEFA president, was seen as having influence among European members who could influence the vote. The payment came on the heels of an extensive investigation launched by the US Department of Justice into bribery, fraud and money laundering at FIFA in 2015, which led to Blatter’s resignation.

Both officials were excluded in 2015 from football for eight years in exchange for payment, although their disqualifications were subsequently reduced.

The Prosecutor’s Office requested twenty months conditional imprisonment against both, but instead the court agreed to compensation of 20,000 francs for moral damages in favor of Blatter, who led the world football organization for 17 years.

With information from Reuters and Agence France-Presse

Read on: