Swiss Court acquits Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini again in FIFA corruption case

Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and ex-UEFA chief Michel Platini have been acquitted once again by a Swiss court in a long-running corruption case involving a controversial payment.

The Extraordinary Appeals Court in Muttenz, near Basel, upheld their 2022 acquittal, rejecting the prosecutors’ request for suspended 20-month sentences. This decision comes nearly a decade after legal proceedings began.

The case revolves around a delayed payment of two million Swiss francs (€1.8 million) made by FIFA to Platini in 2011 for consultancy services he provided between 1998 and 2002. Prosecutors had accused the duo of fraud, arguing that the payment was unfounded and misrepresented to FIFA’s internal controls.

Blatter, 89, and Platini, 69, maintained that they had an oral agreement for a higher salary, which FIFA could not afford at the time. Platini later requested the payment, which was approved by Blatter while he was running for re-election as FIFA president.

Their acquittal means the case has failed once again in Swiss courts, though a final appeal to the Swiss Federal Court is still possible on limited legal grounds.

“After two acquittals, the federal prosecutor’s office must also admit that this criminal procedure has definitively failed. Michel Platini must finally be left alone in criminal matters,” said Platini’s lawyer, Dominic Nellen.

The case, which started in 2015, effectively ended the careers of both Blatter and Platini, two of football’s most powerful figures at the time.