The trial for a supposedly dubious million-euro payment against the two former football officials Joseph Blatter and Michel Platini ended with acquittals.

The Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, Switzerland, dropped the criminal proceedings against the two men and even awarded them compensation.

John Knight

Correspondent for politics and economy in Switzerland.

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The case dates back to 2011. At that time, Michel Platini, then President of the European Football Association UEFA, issued FIFA with an invoice for two million Swiss francs.

It was about fees for the years 1998 to 2002, in which Platini worked as an advisor to Blatter.

Blatter was elected FIFA President in the summer of 1998.

The agreement was based on an oral understanding between Blatter and Platini.

Platini gets to keep the money

In autumn 2015, the Swiss Attorney General got wind of the payment.

She investigated and opened proceedings on suspicion of fraud, embezzlement and forgery of documents.

Platini was unlawfully enriched by collusion and at the expense of FIFA, according to the allegation of the federal prosecutor, who had demanded a suspended prison sentence of one year and eight months for Blatter and Platini.

Platini should also repay the disputed amount of money together with the social security contributions granted;

that would have been 2.2 million francs in total.

But Platini can now keep this money – blocked as a precaution because of the proceedings – according to the court ruling.

Blatter and Platini vehemently denied the allegations during the trial in Bellinzona in June.

Blatter was outraged that he found it “totally incomprehensible” that the incident was in a courtroom.

The payment of the two million francs to Platini went through all the necessary FIFA bodies.

"It is an owed, late payment of wages," said the Swiss.

And the court essentially agreed with this view.

Judge Joséphine Contu Albrizio said the federal prosecutor's evidence was insufficient to justify a conviction.

From Platini's point of view, the whole charge was a plot designed to prevent him from becoming FIFA President and to clear the way for the current incumbent, Gianni Infantino.

In the questioning before the court, the Frenchman rated the actions of the federal prosecutor as a scandal.

"I was called an account forger and a money launderer," he fumed.

"Seven Years of Lies and Manipulations"

After the acquittal by the court, Platini expressed great satisfaction: “I have said it again and again: my fight is a fight against injustice.

I won a first game," Platini said in a statement released by his lawyer.

He was pleased "that after seven years of lies and manipulation, justice finally prevailed".

In the trial in Bellinzona, the truth came to light, the Frenchman assured.

For the Office of the Attorney General (BA), the acquittal is a huge defeat.

This fits seamlessly into a whole series of bankruptcies, mishaps and inconsistencies surrounding the investigations and procedures in the large FIFA corruption complex.

It highlights the dysfunctions and weaknesses in the highly politicized Swiss judicial system.

In April 2020, the criminal proceedings initiated by the BA regarding dubious flows of money in the context of the awarding of the 2006 World Cup to Germany had already been discontinued due to the statute of limitations.

With regard to the controversial payment of millions to Platini, the suspicion that FIFA might have specifically pointed out the transfer to the public prosecutor's office during a raid on the association's headquarters in Zurich in May 2015 was confirmed during the hearings.

The subsequent criminal investigations by the BA prevented Platini's leap to the top of FIFA.

Instead, the way was clear for Gianni Infantino.

In 2016, the Swiss took over the presidency from the resigned Blatter.

Only later did it become known that there were several secret meetings between Infantino, the then BA boss Michael Lauber and other people, including apparently Olivier Thormann, who in 2015 as BA chief investigator at the time also interviewed Blatter.

Two special public prosecutors are investigating the unrecorded meetings, which the participants, strangely enough, could only remember vaguely when asked by the BA supervisory authority.

If the procedure for the two-million payment goes to the next instance, it would end up on Olivier Thormann's table of all things.

Because he is now President of the Appeals Chamber of the Federal Criminal Court.

Thormann testified as a witness in June – and named former FIFA Chief Financial Officer Markus Kattner as the man who drew the investigators' attention to the ominous million-euro payment.

But Kattner, who was called to the witness stand by the court – against the opposition of FIFA and BA – clearly denied this statement.

Platini's lawyer immediately filed a criminal complaint against Thormann for making false statements and breaching official secrecy.

The legal skirmishes in the FIFA swamp are far from over with the recent verdict in Bellinzona.