Back in court. The appeal trial of Michel Platini and former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, accused of having defrauded FIFA, opened Monday March 3 in the morning before the Swiss courts, almost three years after their acquittal at first instance.
Until Thursday evening, the Extraordinary Court of Appeal of the Federal Criminal Court meeting in Muttenz (north-west) is judging the 69-year-old Frenchman and the 88-year-old Swiss for “fraud”, “unfair management”, “breach of trust” and “forgery in securities”, for which they face five years of imprisonment. The Court is due to deliver its decision on March 25.
If Michel Platini, flanked by a translator to follow the hearing in German, is not expected to speak before Tuesday, Sepp Blatter reaffirmed Monday to the judges his “innocence” and recounted his alliance with the Frenchman to seize the presidency of Fifa in 1998 and make him his advisor.
“It would be good if you could help me,” the Valaisan with the triple Ballon d’Or would have said. “But I’m expensive!”, the ex-captain of the Blues would have replied, asking for “a million” without this request ever being recorded in writing.
This episode is at the heart of the affair, since the prosecution accuses the two former leaders of having “illegally obtained, to the detriment of Fifa, a payment of two million Swiss francs” (1.8 million euros) “in favor of Michel Platini”. During the first trial in 2022, the judges considered that the fraud was “not established with a likelihood bordering on certainty” and acquitted them with the benefit of the doubt.
“Unfounded” payment
Defense and prosecution agree on one point: the Frenchman advised Sepp Blatter well between 1998 and 2002, during the latter’s first mandate at the head of Fifa, and the two men signed a contract in 1999 agreeing to an annual remuneration of 300,000 Swiss francs, entirely paid by Fifa.
But in January 2011, “more than eight years after the end of his advisory activity”, Michel Platini “asserted a debt of two million Swiss francs”, paid by the football authority “with the assistance” of Sepp Blatter, notes the prosecution.
For the prosecution, this is an “unfounded” payment, obtained by “cleverly misleading” Fifa’s internal controls through false statements from the two leaders, the key criterion of the fraud.
The two men insist for their part that they had from the outset decided – orally and without witnesses – on an annual salary of one million Swiss francs, without Fifa’s finances allowing immediate payment to Michel Platini.
“Gentlemen’s agreement”
“When Mr. Blatter asked me to be his advisor, he asked me what salary I wanted. I was surprised that he asked me this question and I told him: ‘I want a million,'” the Frenchman said. “Sepp said to me: ‘A million for what?’ And I, as a joke, said: ‘Pesetas, lire, rubles, marks, it’s up to you.’ He said to me: ‘OK, a million Swiss francs.'”
Sepp Blatter, for his part, once again assured Monday morning that Platini was “worth his million”, confirming a “gentlemen’s agreement” concluded orally, without witnesses, and never provisioned in Fifa’s accounts.
The two accused have also repeatedly denounced the possible role of the current boss of world football, Gianni Infantino, in launching the investigation. Former right-hand man of the Frenchman at UEFA and unexpectedly elected head of Fifa in 2016, the Italian-Swiss was targeted in 2020 by a procedure relating to three secret meetings with the former head of the prosecution.
But Swiss justice closed this investigation without further action in 2023, and the power issues have faded around the case: Michel Platini, even after his acquittal, has clearly ruled out attempting a return to Fifa. The body, which nevertheless joined the prosecution’s appeal, is not even represented in Muttenz and has not submitted any request for this new hearing.
With AFP
