Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter dismissed for fraud in Swiss justice

The two former leaders of international football were prosecuted for fraud and breach of trust.

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Former UEFA president Michel Platini and ex-president of the International Football Federation (Fifa) Sepp Blatter have been indicted in Switzerland for several offenses including “swindling” in the case of suspicious payment which placed them since 2015 in the ban of world football, announced Tuesday, November 2 the parquet floor.

This case concerns the payment by Fifa of 2 million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros) to Michel Platini in early 2011. “The evidence gathered by the BVG corroborated that this payment to Platini was made without a legal basis.“, reported the public prosecutor of the Attorney General of Switzerland in a statement. This situation had forced Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter to leave respectively the presidency of UEFA and Fifa. Internal justice of Fifa had estimated that the Frenchman and the Swiss had “abused their position”.

It is now up to the Federal Criminal Court of Bellinzona to validate this indictment and to decide on the holding of a trial against the two former leaders, also prosecuted for “unfair management”, “breach of trust” and “falsehoods”. securities”. These three qualifications are punishable by five years imprisonment, according to the Swiss Penal Code.

Former allies who have become rivals, Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini have been hammering from the start that this is a balance of payment for an advisory job carried out by the French in 1999-2002. The two men maintain since the start of the investigation that they had orally decided on an annual salary of one million Swiss francs for this work, without the finances of Fifa allowing the regulation at the time. to the French, and simply paid the balance late, in 2011.


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