Joseph Blatter and Michel Platini are charged with an appointment process in Switzerland. They are said to have cheated and damaged the FIFA. The World Association appears as a co -plaintiff, but its current president may also play another role.
Joseph Blatter will appear personally this time. At least that’s how it is planned. On Thursday, he was still switched to the Frankfurt am Main District Court on Thursday to say that he also did not know what exactly the ominous 6.7 million euros were intended for in 2002 about mediation and procurement by Franz Beckenbauer at the scandal -controlled official Mohamed bin Hammam in Qatar.
Once very good friends, now spider
In the case of an appeal process in its Swiss homeland, it will also be about a long -term payment from Monday (03.03.2025), the purpose of which there are two versions. Blatter will stand in front of the court in the village of Muttenz near Basel, just like Michel Platini. The two accused are now spider, but were very good friends.
Platini, former world -class football player and European champion with France in 1984, rose as a official to the president of the European continental association UEFA. He was considered a promising candidate to succeed Blatter as President of the World Association FIFA, and also chosen by his friend at the time.
The fact that he didn’t get it has to do with Blatter, who suddenly preferred to continue in 2016 and thereby raised the hostility with Platini, but also with the payment that is about Monday.
Payment with a significant delay
On February 1, 2011, exactly two million Swiss francs (then around 1.9 million euros) flowed from one account of the FIFA to Michel Platini account.
The money was a advisory fee for Platini paid with considerable delay. He had already received 300,000 Swiss francs annually from 1998 to 2002 for his work from 1998 to 2002. A written agreement on the remuneration exists.
Michel Platini after the acquittal in July 2022
Only orally, however, it was agreed between the two friends at the time that there was a lookup if the FIFA was better at cash.
At this point, a statement by Blatter in front of the district court in Frankfurt is interesting. During his annoyance, he said that FIFA granted the organizing committee of the 2006 World Cup in 2002 a “loan” of over 250 million Swiss francs. Other witnesses and procedural participants spoke of a “grant”. The question remains: How does it fit together with a short cash register?
FIFA also pays Social security taxes
In any case, Platini considered the year 2011 to be suitable to make the subsequent claim. According to the indictment, he submitted an invoice on January 17, which was countered by Blatter a day later and paid two weeks later. FIFA also paid the approximately 230,000 Swiss francs of social security taxes.
The indictment writes that Platini had no claim or the fee on it, and Blatter was aware of this. “Your only endeavor was to have the amount of CHF 2,000,000.00 transferred to the assets,” it says literally. The most serious allegation therefore: fraud.
Any references to possible corruption are missing in the indictment
Corruption is therefore in the room, but the indictment lacks any indications of which Platini is said to have received two million.
The Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona also lacked these evidence. Blatter and Platini spoke free on July 8, 2022 – in doubt for the accused.
Judgment for March 25th
Both the Swiss Federal Prosecutor and FIFA as a possibly financially damaged person appealed. From Monday there will be a process in which the judgment is to be spoken on March 25th. Blatter, who turns 89 on March 10, said: “I expect nothing more than confirming the acquittal of the Federal Criminal Court.”
Extraordinary Chamber By lot determined
The fact that the procedure is negotiated in the small town of Muttenz and not in front of the appeal chamber in Bellinzona has to do with an application. The Frenchman complained that Olivier Thormann could be biased as President of the Chamber of Appeals. His complaint was granted because Thormann – when he was still a prosecutor – had opened the procedure against the two football officials.
An extraordinary chamber of appeal was then determined by lot, and since the presiding judge comes from the canton of Baselland, negotiations are now made there.
For years open questions apart from the Accusations
As with the “summer fairy tale” process in Frankfurt, which dealt with tax evasion, Muttenz will also deal with questions that have been open for years. Blatter and Platini is about where the federal prosecutor got from the payment of wind, which the accused describe as a clean “Gentlemen’s Agreement”.
Infantino benefits from the known payment
After the subsequent business became known, the investigation that led to the lock of Blatter and Platini was striking. Gianni Infantino was therefore elected as President of FIFA, who was previously a smaller number in world football as General Secretary of UEFA and was considered an outsider in February 2016 against the Bahrainian sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al Chalifa.
Infantino has been investigated since 2019, among other things about suspicion of abuse of office and violation of the official secrecy.
Non -recorded meetings with federal prosecutors
Three non-recorded meetings of the Swiss FIFA president with Swiss federal lawyers had preceded. The procedure was discontinued in 2023 because the suspicion did not have been confirmed.
Infantino cheered that it was a victory “For justice” and the “New FIFA”the “Today a clean, very well -managed and solid organization” be that “Operated in accordance with the highest ethical and governance standards”.