Shortly before the World Cup
FIFA doesn’t need this news at all
Updated June 9, 2026 – 11:46 amReading time: 3 minutes
Former UEFA President Michel Platini files two lawsuits against FIFA boss Gianni Infantino. The timing can hardly be a coincidence.
Michel Platini is taking legal action against FIFA boss Gianni Infantino. A few days before the start of the World Cup, former UEFA President Platini filed two lawsuits against the Swiss. The allegations are serious. Accordingly, the Frenchman accuses the powerful FIFA boss Infantino of conspiring against him. Now the French judiciary should take care of the matter.
The feud between Platini and Infantino goes back a long way. Both men originally worked closely together, Platini as UEFA boss, Infantino as general secretary of the European association. But in 2015 there was a break between the two power-conscious officials. After the fall of the powerful FIFA boss Sepp Blatter, the former French world-class player Michel Platini was considered the crown prince. He was the most promising candidate to succeed him at the top of the world football association.
But then the justice system intervened. On the morning of May 27, 2015, Zurich cantonal police raided the luxury hotel Baur au Lac and arrested seven high-ranking FIFA officials. The accusation was: corruption in the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. Blatter was initially re-elected as president at the FIFA Congress taking place at the same time in Zurich, but just a few days later he had to resign under pressure from the corruption investigations.
Platini withdrew his candidacy and Infantino was elected
The then UEFA President Platini was actually supposed to succeed Blatter in office. But that didn’t happen. A fraud case was opened against both of them over a controversial payment of two million Swiss francs that Blatter had ordered to Platini. The Fifa Ethics Committee then banned Platini for eight years and excluded him from all activities in the world association. Platini ultimately withdrew his candidacy for the FIFA presidency to “clear his name,” as he said in January 2016.
The Frenchman’s career as a high-ranking football official was finally over, and years of criminal investigations followed. In February 2016, the then UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino was elected FIFA President. A position he still holds to this day. Infantino is more powerful than ever, Platini was only finally acquitted of all allegations of fraud by a Swiss court in March 2025. Just like Blatter. The fraud allegations were never substantiated.