The legal soap opera could continue. The Federal Criminal Court of Bellinzona (Switzerland) delivered its judgment in the Fifa fraud case on Friday 8 July. Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter were acquitted, against the requisitions of the prosecution who asked, in mid-June, for one year and eight months in prison, suspended respectively. Vincent Jäggi, lawyer at Kellerhals Carrard, in Switzerland, discusses the issues at stake in the judgment, and the possible next steps.
Franceinfo: sport: Do remedies exist, now that the Criminal Court of Bellinzona has announced its judgment?
Vincent Jäggi: The decision is not final, there are several avenues of appeal that are possible. It is possible for a party involved in the trial to appeal to the Court of Appeal of the Federal Criminal Court, which rendered the judgment. This can also go as far as the Federal Court, which is the highest court in Switzerland. Fifa, which is a civil party, could therefore continue to dig into this case by appealing.
Gianni Infantino, the current president of Fifa, whose shadow hung over the trial, could he also be worried, in particular by Michel Platini’s complaint for “active influence peddling”?
Not in this context. In this case, things are very clear: it concerns the fact of knowing whether there was a contract established between Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter, which justifies the payment [de deux millions d’euros suisses en faveur de Platini plusieurs années après la fin de la mission] or if it was not. Everything else is irrelevant. If some want to file a complaint against Gianni Infantino, this will open a completely different procedure, independent and unrelated.
So this case is potentially not over?
Not necessarily. The operative part of the judgment rendered invites Fifa to exercise the civil remedy. We can say that it is a part that ends temporarily with the acquittal, but this case concerns civil rather than criminal. Fifa could therefore turn to the civil route.