Former soccer leaders Blatter, Platini return to court over $2m FIFA fraud, forgery

By GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer

Muttenz, SWITZERLAND — Former soccer leaders Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini were back in a Swiss court Monday as their new trial on fraud, forgery and misappropriation charges opened.

“I am hopeful,” ex-FIFA president Blatter, appearing frail one week before his 89th birthday, told reporters in German as he walked slowly down a flight of stairs toward the court house, reaching for the handrail to steady himself before wishing everyone a good day.

He arrived 10 minutes after his co-defendant Platini, the former UEFA president and FIFA vice president.

Blatter and Platini are facing a second trial nearly three years after they were acquitted by three federal judges. The charges relate to a Blatter-approved FIFA payment of 2 million Swiss francs (now $2.21 million) to Platini.

When federal prosecutors published their initial indictment in November 2021, they said the payment “damaged FIFA’s assets and unlawfully enriched Platini.”

The acquittal came nearly seven years after the investigation was first revealed and removed them from office as leaders of FIFA and UEFA. It also ended Platini’s campaign to succeed Blatter as FIFA president.

The second trial is expected to last four days through Thursday. The verdict from three judges is scheduled on March 25.

Blatter and Platini have consistently denied wrongdoing. They claim they had a verbal agreement to eventually pay Platini for non-contracted work advising Blatter during his first presidential term from 1998 to 2002.

Federal prosecutors have asked for sentences of 20 months, suspended for two years.

Blatter and Platini are back in court more than 14 years after the payment was made and 9 1/2 years after Swiss federal investigators formally opened their case.

Details of the payment emerged in fallout from the corruption crisis that hit FIFA in May 2015. U.S. federal investigators unsealed a sweeping investigation of international soccer officials. Swiss authorities made early-morning arrests at hotels in Zurich before seizing FIFA financial and business records.

Blatter and Platini were acquitted in July 2022 after an 11-day trial at Switzerland’s federal criminal court in Bellinzona.

An appeal was filed months later by the Swiss attorney general’s office and FIFA, and the fresh trial was delayed after Platini won a ruling last year ordering federal appeal judges to be recused.

The second trial eventually opened Monday at a cantonal (state) courthouse sitting as a federal tribunal. It is being heard in German by three judges each from different cantons (states). FIFA was not represented in court.

“Where is FIFA?” Platini’s lawyer Dominic Nellen asked the judges Monday, requesting a dismissal of the soccer body’s appeal and civil claim.

FIFA has pursued a civil case to recover the money and 229,000 Swiss francs ($253,000) in social charges paid, plus interest. Platini has said he declared the money as income and paid taxes on it.

Neither Blatter nor Platini has worked in soccer since they were suspended by the FIFA ethics committee in October 2015. They were later banned and failed to overturn those in separate appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2016.

Platini’s ban expired in 2019 and Blatter was given a subsequent ban by FIFA in 2021 months before his first was due to end.

The former FIFA president is exiled from soccer until late in 2028 — when he will be aged 92 — because of an ethics prosecution of alleged self-dealing in eight-figure management bonuses paid for successfully organizing the men’s World Cup in 2010 and 2014.

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AP