BLATTER & PLATINI BACK IN COURT ON TWO MILLION SWISS FRANCS FRAUD CHARGES

 

Sepp Blatter, the former President of FIFA and Michel Platini, the former President of UEFA and former Vice President of FIFA, are back in a Special Federal Criminal Appeal Court in Mutenz, in the Canton of Basel, Switzerland, on 3 March 2025, facing the same charges of fraud, dishonest management and forgery of documents, of which they were acquitted two and a half years ago by the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, in the Canton of Ticino.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has appealed against these acquittals, hence the present criminal proceedings.

Both Blatter and Platini deny these charges, and Blatter who will be 89 years old in a week’s time, because of his health, will only attend the trial for a few days. Whilst Platini will attend the trial in full.

It is alleged that Blatter and Platini “falsely claimed that FIFA owed Platini, or that Platini was entitled to, the sum of CHF2 million for advisory work. This deception was achieved through repeated untruthful claims made by both accused parties.”

It is further alleged that “Blatter and Platini deceived FIFA staff in 2010 and 2011 about an obligation for world soccer’s ruling body to pay the Frenchman, who was president of the game’s European governing body UEFA at the time.”

However, in the earlier criminal proceedings, the Judge accepted that their account of a “gentlemen’s agreement” for the payment was credible and also considered that there were serious doubts about the prosecution’s allegation that it was fraudulent.

Blatter and Platini were suspended from football in 2015 by FIFA for breaches of the FIFA Code of Ethics, originally for eight years, but these suspensions were later reduced by the FIFA Appeal Committee to six years, taking into account “their services to FIFA, UEFA and football in general over the years.”

In the latest criminal proceedings, the Swiss Federal Prosecutor is seeking a sentence of 20 months, suspended for two years, against Blatter and Platini, who, as already mentioned, have consistently denied any wrongdoing.

We act in Swiss criminal as well as civil proceedings and further information is available from Dr Lucien Valloni or Noemi Delli Colli by e-mailing them at ‘valloni@valloni.ch’ and ‘dellicolli@valloni.ch’ respectively.