The former Fifa president Sepp Blatter has insisted he is “clean with my conscience and
clean in my spirit” after ⚾️ being cleared of defrauding football’s governing body by a
Swiss court.
Michel Platini, a former captain and manager of the France ⚾️ national team
who became a vice-president of football’s world governing body, described his joy after
his acquittal, saying the allegations ⚾️ had turned him from a legend to a “devil”.
The
two men, once among the most powerful figures in global sport, ⚾️ had denied the charges.
On Friday they joked and shook hands before the judgment in the southern city of
Bellinzona ⚾️ and looked relieved as the verdict was read out.
The complex case centred
around a 2.2m Swiss francs (£1.7m) payment made ⚾️ from Fifa to Platini with Blatter’s
approval in 2011, for consultancy work a decade earlier. Swiss prosecutors described
the payment ⚾️ as “without a legal basis” and said it had “unlawfully enriched Platini”
because there was no written contract at the ⚾️ time.
Both men maintained they had struck
a verbal gentleman’s agreement for the Frenchman to be paid backdated additional salary
for ⚾️ advising Blatter between 1998 to 2002 – which Platini had not received at the time
because of Fifa’s perilous finances.
That ⚾️ explanation was rejected by judges on Fifa’s
ethics committee, which banned both men from football, and on appeal at the ⚾️ court of
arbitration for sport. The emergence of the payment also led to Blatter ending his
reign as Fifa president ⚾️ in disgrace – while Platini lost his job as president of Uefa,
the European governing body, after his ban.
However, after ⚾️ an 11-day trial at the
federal criminal court of Switzerland, the senior judge, Josephine Contu Albrizio, said
it was credible ⚾️ that there could have been a verbal agreement between Blatter and
Platini. The judge also accepted that it was reasonable ⚾️ for the Frenchman to see his
market value at CHF 1m a year given his status in the game – ⚾️ far more than his annual
salary of CHF 300,000 as a consultant at Fifa between 1998 and 2002.
Albrizio added
that ⚾️ it seemed implausible that Platini would have worked only on the basis of a
written contract that paid him such ⚾️ a modest sum. And she said it was also credible
that Platini sought the extra money only in 2010 because ⚾️ he did not need it
immediately.
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Afterwards Platini, who
has long maintained that the case was a deliberate attempt to thwart ⚾️ his attempt to
become Fifa president in 2024, pledged he would be going after unspecified “culprits”
who led to the ⚾️ case against him.
“I wanted to express my happiness for all my loved
ones that justice has finally been done after ⚾️ seven years of lies and manipulation,” he
said. “The truth has come to light during this trial.”
He added: “Believe me, ⚾️ going
from being a legend of world soccer to a devil is very difficult, especially when it
comes to you ⚾️ in a totally unfair way. I kept saying it – my fight is a fight against
injustice. I won the ⚾️ first game. In this case, there are culprits who did not appear
during this trial. Let them count on me, ⚾️ we will meet again because I will not give up
and I will go all the way in my quest ⚾️ for truth.”
A delighted Blatter, who had run Fifa
for 17 years before his ban, said: “I’m not speaking about Fifa, ⚾️ I’m not speaking about
corruption, I’m speaking about me. I have done nothing wrong. I am clean with my
conscience, ⚾️ I am clean in my spirit.”
Fifa has said it will await the “full reasoned
judgment before commenting further”.
The 86-year-old Blatter ⚾️ faces a separate criminal
proceeding related to authorising aR$1m Fifa payment to the Trinidad and Tobago
Football Association in 2010. ⚾️ He has denied wrongdoing.
