FILE: Ex-FIFA boss Blatter and France great Platini cleared of corruption by Swiss court

Record ID: 1985976

  • Title: FILE: Ex-FIFA boss Blatter and France great Platini cleared of corruption by Swiss court
  • Date: 24th March 2025
  • Summary: BELLINZONA, SWITZERLAND (FILE - JULY 8, 2022) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** FORMER FIFA PRESIDENT, SEPP BLATTER, LEAVING COURT AFTER BEING ACQUITTED OF CORRUPTION CHARGES / BEING SURROUNDED BY MEDIA VARIOUS OF BLATTER SPEAKING TO MEDIA FORMER UEFA PRESIDENT MICHEL PLATINI LEAVING COURT / LAWYER SPEAKING TO MEDIA PLATINI SPEAKING TO MEDIA STARA PAZOVA,
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: FIFA Michel Platini Sepp Blatter UEFA trial
  • Location: VARIOUS, SWITZERLAND / STARA PAZOVA, SERBIA / ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA / PARIS, FRANCE / VIENNA, AUSTRIA
  • City: VARIOUS, SWITZERLAND / STARA PAZOVA, SERBIA / ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA / PARIS, FRANCE / VIENNA, AUSTRIA
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Europe,Judicial Process/Court Cases/Court Decisions
  • Reuters ID: LVA002124924032025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and France soccer great Michel Platini were acquitted by a Swiss court over corruption on Tuesday (March 25).
    The pair, once among the most powerful figures in global soccer, appeared at the Extraordinary Appeals Chamber of the Swiss Criminal Court 2-1/2 years after they were acquitted of fraud.
    Swiss federal prosecutors had rejected the decision at a lower court from 2022, leading to the new hearing in the town of Muttenz, near Basel.
    The case related to a 2 million Swiss franc ($2.27 million) payment Blatter authorised for Platini, a former captain and manager of the French national team, which was made in 2011.
    Platini and Blatter said the payment was a consultancy fee paid to Platini for work between 1998 and 2002, which the Frenchman said had been partly deferred because FIFA lacked the funds to pay him in full immediately.
    The affair, which emerged in 2015 when Platini was president of European soccer body UEFA, torpedoed his hopes of eventually succeeding Blatter at the top of FIFA.
    Blatter and Platini were suspended from football in 2015 by FIFA for ethics breaches, originally for eight years. Although their exclusions were later reduced, the ban ended their careers as senior football administrators.
    The 2022 indictment accused Blatter and Platini of deceiving FIFA staff in 2010 and 2011 about an obligation for world soccer's ruling body to pay Platini.
    Blatter was eventually replaced by Gianni Infantino, who had worked for Platini at UEFA. Infantino owed his candidacy to the fact that Europe's preferred candidate, Platini, was banned from football.
    Prosecutors wanted a sentence of 20 months in jail, suspended for two years for both Blatter and Platini, and to confiscate the money.
    There can be an appeal against the judgement to the Swiss Federal Court, the country's highest legal authority.
    (Production: Mussab Al-Khairalla)
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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