Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and former UEFA President Michel Platini will go on trial in June to face corruption charges in Switzerland over a $2million payment that world football’s governing body paid to Platini, the court heard on Tuesday.
Both Blatter and Platini have repeatedly denied past wrongdoing during the incident, for which Swiss prosecutors have charged them https://www.Reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/blatter-platini-indicted -by-swiss-authorities-over-2 -million-swiss-francs-2021-11-02/#:~:text=ZURICH%2C%20Nov%202%20(Reuters),de%20Suisse%20said%20on %20Tuesday in November. Prosecutors allege Blatter misarranged payment to Platini, who led France to victory at the 1984 European Championship, in 2011 for consultancy work. Blatter and Platini said the payment was for backdated salary.
Both are suspected of fraud and other charges amid what has become the biggest corruption scandal to rock FIFA. Blatter, who led FIFA for 17 years, resigned in 2015, followed by Platini in 2016. Both were banned for six years for breaches of ethics.
The trial in the Swiss Federal Criminal Court is due to begin on June 8 and last until June 22, the court said on its website. Blatter’s attorney’s office declined to comment. At the time of his arraignment, Blatter said, “I look forward to the trial in Federal Criminal Court with optimism and hope that this story will come to an end and that all the facts will be dealt with properly.”
Platini’s Swiss lawyer was not immediately available for comment. In the past, he said his client was innocent and the case should have been closed long ago. The court said that Blatter and Platini are accused of having illegally obtained, at the expense of FIFA, the payment of 2 million Swiss francs (2.15 million dollars) and social security contributions worth about 229,000 francs for Platini.
“Among other things, Michel Francois Platini had submitted to FIFA in 2011 a presumably fictitious invoice for an (allegedly) still existing claim for his consulting activities for FIFA in the years 1998 to 2002,” he said. ($1 = 0.9304 Swiss francs)
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