Sepp Blatter, ex-FIFA boss, and Michel Platini cleared for 2nd time in corruption case
March 25 (UPI) -- Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and a colleague were acquitted Tuesday for a second time on nearly 15 year old allegations of fraud at the European football's governing body.
Blatter, then-president of the Zurich-based Federation Internationale de Football Association, and former French footballer star Michel Platini were cleared of corruption charges stemming out of a $2 million payment in 2011 that Swiss prosecutors claimed Blatter made illegally as a bribe to ensure Blatter's re-election as FIFA's president.
"Finally, the court has dispensed justice and for me, my family and my friends," Blatter, now 89, told reporters Tuesday after the verdict in Muttenz, near Basel in Switzerland. "This is a big thing."
"I'm full of emotion right now," he added.
In July 2022, a Swiss court originally cleared the two men. But Swiss federal prosecutors appealed the decision which lead to a new trial.
"Today, my honor has returned and I am very happy," Platini, now 69, said Tuesday, adding that his "persecution" was "now totally over."
Blatter and Platini were both accused of defrauding FIFA, the global soccer authority, in the case. Prosecutors said Blatter made the 2011 payment using FIFA money. Platini, at the time, was sitting as head of the Union of European Football Associations.
The two men, however, contend the payment covered services for FIFA rendered by Platini years prior.
The scandal forced Blatter to resign after his re-election and dashed what hope Platini had of succeeding Blatter as FIFA's chief.
Meanwhile, Platini's lawyer indicated they are planning legal action against the prosecution and those responsible for the criminal proceedings.
"The criminal proceedings have had not only legal but also massive personal and professional consequences for Michel Platini, although no incriminating evidence was ever presented," the French citizen's lawyer Dominic Nellen said in a statement, saying how the Swiss office of attorney general has "not managed to find a single piece of incriminating evidence for over 10 years" and that the trials "were not justified and should never have been conducted."
Nellen stated that Platini must "finally be left in peace in criminal matters."
"After two acquittals, even the office of the attorney general of Switzerland must realize that these criminal proceedings have definitively failed," Nellen said Tuesday.
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