Latest news with #Blatter
New Straits Times
05-05-2025
- Business
- New Straits Times
Terengganu FC clear the air over FIFA sanction
KUALA LUMPUR: Terengganu FC have dismissed concerns over a FIFA-imposed transfer ban, insisting the matter was resolved last month. In a statement on their official Facebook page, the east coast club said the issue stemmed from a dispute with a former foreign staff member over a five-figure allowance, which has since been settled. "The issue shouldn't even be played up as it was resolved in April," the club said. "FIFA confirmed the settlement on April 21 and gave five days for the claimant to acknowledge receipt of payment. That window has passed." The club stressed that the Malaysian league's transfer window has not opened yet — it's expected to start in July — and that the new season is likely to kick off in early August. "We've already taken proactive steps, despite having ample time. This issue is being sensationalised," they added. Earlier, Timesport reported that FIFA had imposed transfer bans on nine Malaysian clubs, including Super League side Terengganu. The ban, which began in April and is due to last three years, had cast doubt over the club's preparations for the 2025-26 season. Football Dec 16, 2024 @ 7:48am Ex-Terengganu City players finally receive Fifa compensation Football 5 hours ago Nine Malaysian clubs on FIFA transfer ban list Football Mar 25, 2025 @ 8:26pm Blatter and Platini cleared in FIFA graft case Nation Apr 24, 2025 @ 10:21am Terengganu to ban vape sales from Aug 1
Dubai Eye
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Dubai Eye
Ex-FIFA chief Blatter and Platini cleared in corruption case
Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and France football great Michel Platini were both cleared of corruption charges by a Swiss court on Tuesday, two and a half years after they were first acquitted of the offences. The pair, once among the most powerful figures in global football, were cleared of fraud at the Extraordinary Appeals Chamber of the Swiss Criminal Court in the town of Muttenz, near Basel. The hearing came about after Swiss federal prosecutors appealed against their 2022 acquittal at a lower court. Both men had denied the charge which related to a 2 million Swiss franc ($2.26 million) payment Blatter authorised for Platini in 2011. The court said there were doubts about the prosecution's allegation the payment for Platini, a former captain and manager of the French national team, was fraudulent. The 2022 indictment had accused Blatter and Platini of deceiving FIFA staff in 2010 and 2011 about an obligation for world football's ruling body to pay Platini. "They falsely claimed that FIFA owed Platini, or that Platini was entitled to, the sum of 2 million Swiss francs for advisory work. This deception was achieved through repeated untruthful claims made by both accused parties," the indictment said. But the court cleared the pair, saying their account of an oral agreement for the payment could not be ruled out. Platini had argued that the payment had been partly deferred until 2011 because FIFA lacked the funds to pay him in full immediately. The court said the pair had both been consistent in their accounts of the payment, which covered consultancy work carried out by Platini for Blatter between 1998 and 2002. Platini's experience as a top footballer and coach, explained the size of the payment, said the court, which followed the legal principle that in cases of doubt, favour the accused. "It can not be assumed that the defendants acted with the intention of enriching themselves in the sense of the charged offences," the court said. The scandal, which emerged in 2015 when Platini was president of European football's ruling body UEFA, ended his hopes of succeeding Blatter, who was forced out of FIFA over the affair. Blatter and Platini were suspended from football in 2015 by FIFA for ethics breaches, originally for eight years, although their exclusions were later reduced. Platini said he was relieved the case was over, and he had received messages of support from 10,000 people. "The persecution of FIFA and some Swiss federal prosecutors for 10 years is now over," Platini told reporters. "It is now totally over. And for me, today, my honour has returned and I am very happy." The 69-year-old said he thought the case had been intended to prevent him becoming FIFA president, but he was now too old to return to football. The money, which had been confiscated and held by the Swiss authorities, can now be returned to him. A frail-looking Blatter hugged his daughter Corinne after the judgement and said he was relieved with the decision. "It is a great relief for me because it's been going on for ten years. It's like a sword of Damocles hanging over my head," he told reporters. "And now it's over and I can breathe," the 89-year-old said. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 20 months in jail, suspended for two years for both Blatter and Platini. The Swiss attorney general's office said it would review the written judgement, before deciding whether to appeal again to the Swiss Federal Court, the country's highest legal authority.
Observer
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Observer
Blatter and Platini cleared in Fifa graft case
MUTTENZ, Switzerland: Former Fifa president Sepp Blatter and ex-Uefa chief Michel Platini on Tuesday were acquitted on appeal by a Swiss court in a long-running corruption case that shattered their careers as the most powerful figures in world football. Blatter, 89, and Platini, 69, listened in silence as the Extraordinary Court of Appeal clerk in the town of Muttenz, near Basel, read out a decision identical to the one handed down in 2022, which had initially cleared them. Prosectors had requested suspended sentences of 20 months for the pair, but charges of fraud, for which they risked five years' imprisonment, as well as disloyal management, breach of trust and forgery of documents were all dismissed. After almost 10 years of legal proceedings, a final appeal is still possible before the Swiss Supreme Court, but only on limited legal grounds. The prosecutors' office said in a statement it "will decide about how to further proceed". "The persecution by Fifa and some Swiss federal prosecutors for 10 years is now over," Platini told reporters. "Today my honour is restored, and I'm very happy." Platini, a former France captain and manager, said he felt "from the start" that the purpose of the affair was to prevent him "from being president of Fifa". "I know that for my enemies, it was time that was important... They kept me out for 10 years," continued Platini, whose downfall cleared the way for the election in early 2016 of Gianni Infantino as Fifa boss. Blatter and Platini returned to court earlier this month on charges stemming from a delayed payment of two million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros) Fifa made to Platini in 2011 for consultancy services. "After two acquittals, the federal prosecutor's office must also admit that this criminal procedure has definitively failed. Michel Platini must finally be left alone in criminal matters," said Dominic Nellen, Platini's lawyer. GENTLEMEN'S AGREEMENT The case began in 2015 when Blatter quit as head of Fifa in a corruption crisis. Blatter and Platini were initially acquitted by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in June 2022, but the Swiss Attorney General's office immediately appealed that verdict. The defence and prosecution agreed that Platini did advise Blatter between 1998 and 2002, during the Swiss administrator's first term at the head of Fifa, and that in 1999 the two men signed a contract agreeing an annual remuneration of 300,000 Swiss francs, to be "paid in full by Fifa". Blatter and Platini said that at the start they agreed orally, and without witnesses, on an annual salary of one million Swiss francs, but Fifa's financial state did not allow for immediate payment. Blatter called it a "gentlemen's agreement". Prosecutor Thomas Hildbrand said the argument was implausible. Even if Fifa had transferred one million Swiss francs to Platini in 1999, it would still have had "more than 21 million francs in cash", and its reserves had reached 328 million in 2002. To agree to such a sum without a written record, without witnesses and without ever making provision for it in the accounts was, he said, "contrary to commercial practice" as well as to Fifa's norms. In January 2011, "more than eight years after the end of his activity as an adviser", Platini "claimed a debt of two million Swiss francs", which Fifa paid. Prosecutors argued that this was an "unfounded" payment, obtained by "cleverly misleading" Fifa's internal controls through false statements made by the two executives. At the time, Blatter was running for re-election as Fifa president and Platini had become head of European football. Platini backed Blatter in his successful bid for a fourth term in charge of Fifa. Both men were eventually banned from football by Fifa's ethics committee. — AFP
Fox Sports
25-03-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini acquitted again in trial of financial wrongdoing at FIFA
Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini won again in court Tuesday and now lead 2-0 in trial verdicts against Swiss federal prosecutors. Once soccer's most powerful men, former FIFA president Blatter and former UEFA president Platini were acquitted for a second time in a case now in its 10th year on charges of fraud, forgery, mismanagement and misappropriation of more than $2 million of FIFA money in 2011. Blatter, now aged 89, gave little reaction listening to the verdict of three cantonal (state) judges acting as a federal criminal appeals court. Sitting in the row in front of Platini, Blatter alternately tapped his fingers on his desk or held his left hand over his mouth. Only when the 55-minute verdict statement was over did Blatter smile before reaching across to shake his lawyer's hand. Blatter then shared a long hug with his daughter, Corinne. "You have seen my daughter was coming with tears because she believed in (her) father and I believed in myself," said Blatter, who spoke of a sword of Damocles being removed from over his head. "To wait such a long time affects the person and my family was very much affected." Platini sat with his arms folded or rubbing his hands as he listened to a translator sitting beside him relating the court's verdict in German into his native French. "This persecution by FIFA and some Swiss federal prosecutors for 10 years is now finished, is now totally finished," Platini said leaving the court, insisting his honor was restored. "So I'm very happy." The attorney general's office in Switzerland had challenged a first acquittal in July 2022 and asked for sentences of 20 months, suspended for two years. The indictment alleged the payment "damaged FIFA's assets and unlawfully enriched Platini." "Michel Platini must finally be left in peace in criminal matters," his lawyer Dominic Nellen said in a statement. "After two acquittals, even the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland must realize that these criminal proceedings have definitively failed." A further appeal to the Swiss supreme court can be filed by the prosecutors' office, which said in a statement it "will decide about how to further proceed." The court said Platini is entitled to almost 180,000 Swiss francs ($204,000) in compensation and Blatter about 110,000 Swiss francs ($125,000). Most is from the Swiss state and 1,500 Swiss francs ($1,700) each from FIFA. FIFA was approached for comment on the verdict. Decade-long case Blatter and Platini have consistently denied wrongdoing in a decade-long case that ultimately came to nothing in court yet totally altered world soccer body FIFA. The legal case swung on their claims of a verbal agreement to one day settle the money in question. Blatter approved FIFA paying 2 million Swiss francs (now $2.21 million) to France soccer great Platini in February 2011 for supplementary and non-contracted salary working as a presidential advisor from 1998-2002. The latest win for Blatter and the 69-year-old Platini came exactly 9½ years since the Swiss federal investigation was revealed and kicked off events that ended the careers of the two men. That September 2015 day in Zurich, police came to interrogate them at FIFA after an executive committee meeting when Platini was a strong favorite to succeed his one-time mentor in an upcoming election. With Platini soon suspended and banned by FIFA, European soccer body UEFA ran his long-time general secretary Gianni Infantino as its election candidate. Infantino was a surprise winner in February 2016 and is set to lead FIFA until at least 2031. Corruption crises Though federal court trials have twice cleared their names, Blatter's reputation likely always will be tied to leading FIFA during corruption crises that took down a swath of senior soccer officials worldwide. Two were convicted in 2017 after a trial in a U.S. federal court in Brooklyn. Platini, one of soccer's greatest players and later Blatter's protégé in soccer politics, never did get the FIFA presidency he often called his destiny. 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 the bans in separate appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2016. "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," Nellen said, suggesting further legal action "against those responsible for the criminal proceedings." 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. Asked Tuesday if he might return to soccer, Platini quipped: "I am too old. I look young but I am very old." Blatter is exiled from soccer until late in 2028 — when he will be 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. 'Gentleman's agreement' The verdict was given Tuesday in a low-key provincial courthouse where a four-day trial was held three weeks ago. Blatter and Platini have claimed at five different judicial bodies — twice at FIFA, then the Court of Arbitration for Sport and now two Swiss federal criminal courts — they had a verbal "gentleman's agreement" to one day settle the unpaid and non-contracted salary. Platini was a storied former captain and coach of the France national term when he worked to help Blatter get elected to lead FIFA in Paris on the eve of the 1998 World Cup he organized. The two men said Platini agreed to be a presidential adviser on an annual salary of 300,000 Swiss francs (now $340,000) through 2002. They claim there was a verbal deal to later get the balance of 1 million Swiss francs for each year that FIFA could not pay at the time. Platini started asking for the money early in 2010, citing seven-figure payments made to senior Blatter aides who left FIFA which showed the soccer body could afford to pay him. The payment was finally made in February 2011. Details of the payment only emerged in the crisis that hit FIFA in May 2015 when 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. In 2015, Swiss federal prosecutors already were handling a criminal complaint filed by FIFA. That was about suspected financial wrongdoing linked to votes in December 2010 that picked Russia and Qatar as future World Cup hosts. Reporting by The Associated Press. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account , and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily! recommended Get more from FIFA Men's World Cup Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more in this topic
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
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.
