The two men, former presidents of UEFA and FIFA respectively, will be tried by the Federal Criminal Court in Switzerland between June 8 and 22.
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Michel Platini, former UEFA president, and Sepp Blatter, former FIFA president, will be tried in Switzerland from June 8 to 22 for fraud, in the suspicious payment case that has placed them on the ban from world football since 2015. , April 12, the Federal Criminal Court.
The two former leaders, also prosecuted for dishonest management, breach of trust and forgery of titles, are suspected “illegally obtained payment of 2 million Swiss francs at FIFA’s expense” (1.8 million euros) “in favor of Michel Platini”, specifies jurisdiction in Bellinzona. The Frenchman was banned from all football-related activities for four years, while the Swiss was banned for six years.
The former France international advised Sepp Blatter between 1998 and 2002, during the Swiss leader’s first term at the head of FIFA, under a written contract signed in 1999. In this agreed an annual fee of 300,000 Swiss francs, “billed by Mr. Platini and paid in full by FIFA”the Swiss prosecutor recalled in early November.
But in 2011 “more than eight years after the end of his activity as a consultant”the former captain of the Blues “claimed a claim of 2 million Swiss francs”acquitted by the football authority “with the competition” by Sepp Blatter, and reviewed “unfounded” by the prosecution.
The two men have maintained since the initiation of the investigation that they had verbally agreed on an annual salary of one million Swiss francs for this work as a consultant, without FIFA’s finances at the time permitting payment to Michel Platini. They just claim to have paid the balance late. Simple fraud carries five years in prison”or a finee” in Swiss law.
