Respectively former presidents of UEFA and Fifa, the two men will be tried between June 8 and 22 in Switzerland by the Federal Criminal Court.
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Michel Platini, former president of UEFA, and Sepp Blatter, former president of Fifa, will be tried from June 8 to 22 in Switzerland for fraud, in the suspicious payment case which has placed them since 2015 on the ban of world football , announced Tuesday, April 12 the Federal Criminal Court.
The two former leaders, also prosecuted for unfair management, breach of trust and forgery in titles, are suspected of having “illegally obtained, at the expense of Fifa, a payment of 2 million Swiss francs” (1.8 million euros) “in favor of Michel Platini”, specifies the jurisdiction based in Bellinzona. The Frenchman had been suspended for four years from all football-related activity, while the Swiss had been suspended for six years.
The former French international advised Sepp Blatter between 1998 and 2002, during the first mandate of the Swiss leader at the head of Fifa, according to a written contract signed in 1999. This agreed to an annual remuneration of 300,000 Swiss francs, “invoiced by Mr. Platini and fully paid by Fifa”recalled the Swiss prosecutor’s office at the beginning of November.
But in 2011, “more than eight years after the end of his activity as an adviser”the former captain of the Blues “asserted a claim of 2 million Swiss francs”acquitted by the football authority “with the competition” by Sepp Blatter, and judged “unfounded” by the prosecution.
The two men have insisted since the start of the investigation that they had orally decided on an annual salary of one million Swiss francs for this work as an adviser, without the finances of Fifa allowing it at the time. payment to Michel Platini. They claim to have simply settled the balance late. Simple fraud is punishable by five years in prison “or a pecuniary penaltye” in Swiss law.