Bern (AFP)
Prosecuted since 2015 by the Swiss justice, the former president of Fifa Sepp Blatter is explained Tuesday on the 2 million Swiss francs (1.8 M EUR) paid to Michel Platini, a case which broke the course of leadership of two former allies.
Accompanied by his lawyer, a thin smile on his lips, the Haut-Valaisan arrived around 07:00 GMT in front of the headquarters of the Public Ministry of the Confederation (MPC) in Bern, where the former captain of the Blues had been questioned the day before on the same facts. .
"This is the moment when we start to talk about this dossier which has lasted for five years, and about which I have never been asked questions, so I am happy to be able to give information on it", declared the former boss of world football getting out of his sedan.
The duration of his hearing is not known but the day before, Michel Platini, also arrived at the beginning of the morning, had answered the questions of the prosecutor Thomas Hildbrand until midday.
Sepp Blatter has been targeted since September 2015 by an investigation for "unfair management", after the discovery of the payment made by Fifa to Michel Platini of 2 million Swiss francs in early 2011, for an advisory work dating back to the period 1999-2002.
- Platini ousted -
This case earned Blatter, 84, like Platini, 65, a suspension of several years from all football-related activities: the Swiss had already resigned in June 2015 due to the huge corruption scandal affecting the International Federation. football (Fifa), but the French had to give up running for the head of the body in 2016, for which he was a favorite.
Michel Platini also sees in this case "a collusion between Swiss justice and a clique inside and outside Fifa", aiming in particular to "eliminate the election to the presidency", accused -it last April with AFP.
And if the suspension of the legendary N.10 of the Blues ended last year, the Swiss prosecution has just broadened its investigations and is now suing Platini for "complicity in unfair management, embezzlement and forgery in the titles".
Former allies with tumultuous relations, Blatter and Platini have hammered for five years that this sum is a balance of salary corresponding to an agreement between them in the spring of 1998. The Haut-Valaisan, who joined Fifa in 1975 as director of development, was then looking for the support of the triple Golden Ball to take the lead.
- Oral contract?
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"The sum has been validated by the finance committee. This cannot be criminalized," Blatter told AFP recently, saying he was "calm" before this new hearing.
But Fifa deplores for its part the absence of a written contract mentioning at the time such remuneration, and claims from Michel Platini the reimbursement since the end of 2019 before the Swiss civil justice.
The case is all the more complex since there is indeed a written "convention" signed in 1999, after the accession of Sepp Blatter after the presidency of Fifa: but it provides for a salary of 300,000 Swiss francs per year for Michel Platini, far from the annual million claimed by the former champion.
Both Platini and Blatter have since explained this gap by referring to the "liquidity problems" experienced by Fifa at the time.
They therefore expected that the additional salary would be paid subsequently, simply neglecting to specify it in writing, reported the Court of Arbitration for Sport in a decision rendered in 2016.
In addition to this case, which also targets the former secretary general of Fifa Jérôme Valcke and the former financial director Markus Kattner, the Swiss justice has opened for five years about twenty procedures concerning the supreme authority of football.
None have yet found an epilogue.
© 2020 AFP