Fifa: Blatter and Platini on trial in June for fraud in Switzerland

Former FIFA president Joseph Blatter and Michel Platini, former head of the governing body of European football Uefa, will be tried for fraud and other crimes in Switzerland from 8 June. The date was set by a federal court in Bellinzona and the trial is expected to last until 22 June. Swiss federal prosecutors said in a statement in November that there was no legal basis for the payment of $ 2 million in 2011 to Platini, declared as money for the job as a FIFA consultant 1998-2002. “This payment damaged Fifa’s assets and illegally enriched Platini,” the prosecution’s statement read.

THE INVESTIGATION

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Blatter, 86, and Platini, 66, must now be tried in a criminal court. Prosecutors said Platini had already been paid by Fifa for his consultancy work prior to paying $ 2 million. The criminal investigation against Blatter began in the fall of 2015, after he declared, in the wake of police searches and the arrest of FIFA officials on corruption charges, that he would step down as president of the governing body of world football. Both were banned for years by the Fifa ethics committee which ended their careers, with Platini previously succeeding Blatter as Fifa’s number one. Blatter was charged with fraud, embezzlement of Fifa funds and mismanagement, as well as forging a document. Platini was charged with fraud, embezzlement, counterfeiting and complicit in Blatter’s alleged mismanagement. They both claimed their innocence and claimed they had a verbal agreement on the payment.