Platini and Blatter are acquitted in Swiss fraud case

Michel Platini and former FIFA president Sepp Blatter were acquitted on Friday in Switzerland in the fraud case. In 2015, the allegations ended the former French player’s ambitions to assume the leadership of the entity that commands world football.

In silence, the two accused, who pleaded not guilty, listened to the reading of the verdict of the case, for which they could have been sentenced to five years in prison. The Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona did not follow the recommendations of the Prosecutor’s Office, which in June had requested a sentence of one year and eight months in prison with probation.

“A neutral court found that no crime was committed in this case. My client is completely acquitted and relieved of this,” said Dominic Nellen, attorney for Michel Platini.

The former captain of the French national team celebrated in a brief statement the victory in the “first match” and again mentioned a political-judicial manipulation that was intended to remove him from power: “In this case there are culprits who did not appear in the process. , we’ll see you again”.

“I’ve always said my conscience is clear,” Blatter said, relieved but fragile-looking, outside the courtroom.

Michel Platini is particularly suspicious of a hidden role by Gianni Infantino, his former right-hand man at UEFA, elected in 2016 as president of FIFA, and the subject since 2020 of a separate process for three secret meetings with the former president of the Swiss Public Ministry. .

Unable to link this case with the facts judged in Bellinzona, the 67-year-old Frenchman and the 86-year-old Swiss appeared in court because “they would have illegally obtained, to the detriment of FIFA, a payment of 2 million Swiss francs [US$ 2 milhões, ou cerca de R$ 10,6 milhões em cotações atuais] in favor of Michel Platini”.

Defense and prosecution agreed on one point: the former player, who won the Ballon d’Or award three times, advised Blatter between 1998 and 2002, during the Swiss’s first term as FIFA president. In 1999, the two signed a contract that stipulated an annual remuneration of 300,000 Swiss francs, an amount paid in full by FIFA.

But in January 2011, the former Juventus player – who at the time was UEFA president (2007-2015) – mentioned the existence of “a debt of 2 million Swiss francs”, described as a “false invoice” by the prosecution.

The two insist, however, that they agreed from the start to an annual salary of one million Swiss francs through a “gentlemen’s agreement”, verbal and without witnesses, without FIFA’s finances allowing immediate payment to Platini.

The court found that the fraud “was not established with a likelihood to rely on certainty”, thus applying the principle of law that provides for the benefit of the doubt in favor of the defendant.

(with Reuters)