Ex-football bosses Blatter and Platini acquitted

Former FIFA President Joseph Blatter and former Uefa President Michel Platini have once again been acquitted in an appeal trial concerning a million-euro payment by FIFA. It was the second acquittal in the case in the second trial; after the first, the public prosecutor's office had lodged an appeal. Both men were accused of fraud, falsification of documents and embezzlement of more than two million francs in 2011.

Blatter, now 89 years old, showed no reaction to the verdict of the three judges. Platini sat with his arms folded or rubbed his hands together as he listened to a translator next to him translate the court ruling from German into his native French.

The Swiss Attorney General's Office had contested an initial acquittal in July 2022 and requested a suspended prison sentence of 20 months for two years.more from the departmentThe proceedings concerned a payment of two million Swiss francs (around 1.9 million euros) that Platini received with Blatter's cooperation over eight years after the termination of a consultancy job for Blatter.

In 2011, Platini had written to FIFA asking to receive an additional salary retroactively for his work as an advisor to Blatter during his first term of office from 1998 to 2002. Blatter authorized Fifa to make the payment, but both Blatter and Platini denied any wrongdoing and referred to an oral agreement more than 20 years ago regarding the payment of the money.

The case led to the premature termination of Blatter's Fifa presidency and put an end to Platini's ambition to succeed his former mentor at the helm of Fifa