Michel Platini files a complaint against FIFA President Gianni Infantino for “active influence peddling”

Michel Platini attacks the president of the International Football Federation (Fifa) Gianni Infantino. On Tuesday April 5, the former leader of the European Confederation made public the filing of a complaint in Paris against Gianni Infantino, President of Fifa, for “active influence peddling” and against Marco Villiger, former legal director of the Fifa, for “complicity in active influence peddling”. The Paris prosecutor’s office registered this complaint on November 16, according to the receipt of which AFP obtained a copy.

The ex-star of the Blues has opposed frontally for several years to Infantino and his entourage. Michel Platini suspects him of having ousted him from the race for the presidency of Fifa in 2015 by alerting the Swiss prosecutor’s office to a suspicious payment of 2 million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros), made by the authority international, on the orders of its president Sepp Blatter for the attention of the French in 2011. All without written justification.

In this case, Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter were indicted in Switzerland in November 2021 for several offenses including “fraud” and are heading for trial. The two men insist that it is a remainder of salary for work as an adviser dating back to the period 1999-2002. The Frenchman had been suspended for four years from all football-related activity in 2016.

Opposite, Gianni Infantino, starread in 2016 at the helm of Fifa, is also targeted through criminal proceedings in Switzerland since July 2020 for “incitement to abuse of authority”, “violation of official secrecy” and “obstructing criminal proceedings”.