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Sepp Blatter, the former president of Fifa, and Michel Platini, the France great and former president of Uefa, have restated their innocence in relation to allegations of fraud when appearing on Monday in a Swiss court.
The pair were cleared of fraud in July 2022 at a lower Swiss court following a seven-year investigation into a payment of 2.2m Swiss francs (£1.7m) from Fifa to Platini with Blatter’s approval in 2011, for consultancy work a decade earlier. The Swiss federal prosecutor has appealed against that decision, leading to a new hearing at the extraordinary appeals chamber of the Swiss criminal court in Muttenz, near Basel. The prosecutor asked for the judgment to be set aside in full.
Blatter told the court on Monday he was not guilty of fraud. “When you talk about falsehoods, lies and deception, that’s not me. That didn’t exist in my whole life,” he said. “We had principles in my family – we take only money we have earned. I am innocent.”
Blatter, who was Fifa president for 17 years, resigning in 2015 following a separate corruption scandal, said before the hearing that he felt he was the subject of a witch-hunt. “I am very positive,” the 88-year-old told reporters outside the court. “Today is a very sunny day and I’m going into this with positive energy.”
Platini told the court that he had a contract agreed to work for four years as an adviser to Blatter between 1998 and 2002. He was not paid immediately because Blatter said Fifa lacked the funds to pay him at that time. Platini invoiced Fifa for the payment in 2011. “I knew that Fifa would pay me what it owed sooner or later,” the three-time European footballer of the year said. “When Fifa asked me to make an invoice, for me it was simple. It was 500,000 multiplied by four years; that’s two million. I made an invoice and 10 days later I was remunerated, and I paid my taxes on it.”
The 2022 indictment accused Blatter and Platini of deceiving Fifa staff in 2010 and 2011 about an obligation for world football’s governing body to pay Platini in his capacity as Uefa president. “They falsely claimed that Fifa owed Platini, or that Platini was entitled to, the sum of two million Swiss francs for advisory work,” the indictment read. “This deception was achieved through repeated untruthful claims made by both accused parties”.
Blatter and Platini were suspended from football in 2015 by Fifa for ethics breaches, originally for eight years, although their exclusions were later reduced. The pair were cleared in the 2022 case after a judge accepted that their account of a “gentlemen’s agreement” for the payment was credible. The judge also said serious doubts existed about the prosecution’s allegation that it was fraudulent.
The Swiss federal prosecutor is seeking a sentence of 20 months, suspended for two years, against Blatter and Platini. A verdict is expected on 25 March.
