Paris (AFP)
The Public Prosecutor's Office of the Swiss Confederation (MPC, prosecution) decided to close in March one of the two investigations targeting the ex-Swiss president of Fifa, Sepp Blatter, Le Monde and the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung revealed on Friday.
According to these two newspapers, the ousted boss of the International Football Federation, 84 years old, will not be prosecuted for the granting of television rights to the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), one of the two aspects of the proceedings opened against him in 2015, for "suspicion of unfair management and breach of trust".
Questioned by AFP, Sepp Blatter said "not to have received personally the document of the MPC".
The MPC suspected Sepp Blatter of having signed a "contract unfavorable to FIFA" with the CFU, then led by the sulphurous Trinidadian Jack Warner, struck off for life by the International Federation and charged with corruption by the American justice.
Terminated in 2011, this contract granted the television rights for the 2010 and 2014 Worlds to the CFU for 600,000 dollars (536,000 euros), an amount deemed to be below market price.
The former FIFA president, however, remains under criminal proceedings in the second part of the case: the controversial payment of 2 million Swiss francs (1.89 M EUR) to Michel Platini, then UEFA President in February 2011.
"Once the case concerning the payment of the 2 million Swiss francs to Platini will also be closed, I will ask Fifa for my rehabilitation because my suspension by the ethics committee of Fifa was made on the basis of the accusations of Swiss justice, "added Blatter to AFP.
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