Follow Us on Google
Switzerland’s justice system suffered another embarrassment after a court in Bellinzona cleared Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini of fraud and corruption.
In 2020 a long-running trial, also in Bellinzona, of three former German football bosses and an ex-FIFA official collapsed after exceeding a statute of limitations.
Blatter had been the all-powerful president of world football federation FIFA for 17 years while Platini, one of his vice-presidents and also supremo for eight years of European governing body UEFA when they were placed under investigation and expelled from the game in September 2015.
At issue was the infamous “disloyal payment” of 2m Swiss francs paid by FIFA on the authorisation of Blatter to Platini in February 2011. Platini had worked for FIFA between 1998 and 2002 before launching a football political career of his own.
Before the court case began in early June the last time the two old friends turned rivals had met was on September 7, 2020, when Platini was questioned at the headquarters of the Swiss public prosecutor in Bern.
Ultimately both men were accused formally of “suspicion of fraud, unfair management, breach of trust and forgery.” The prosecution had demanded suspended 20-month jail sentences for the charges which both men denied.
