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The trial before the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona was about a controversial payment of two million Swiss francs from the world football association Fifa to Michel Platini. Federal prosecutors accused former Fifa President Joseph Blatter and former Uefa boss Michel Platini of fraud against Fifa; the payment in 2011 was abusive. But the judges in Bellinzona came to the conclusion that it was “quite plausible” that Blatter and Platini had reached an oral agreement in 1998. Accordingly, the money was granted to Platini – for his many years as an advisor to Fifa.
Satisfaction for Blatter and Platini
For Blatter and Platini, the acquittal means enormous satisfaction: the two had played a formative role in world football for years. But the investigations of the federal prosecutor’s office brought her career as a functionary to an abrupt halt: Fifa banned her from all offices for this reason. As a result, they were ostracized. Now her honor is restored, her vest washed clean. They were correspondingly relieved after the verdict was announced in Bellinzona.
defeat for Fifa
On the other hand, the verdict is embarrassing for Fifa: The world football association appeared as a private prosecutor in the process. His representative was extremely aggressive in court and demanded the payment of the two million francs back. However, the court did not comply with this demand: not only does Fifa not get the money back, but the acquittal also casts doubt on the ban of Blatter and Platini. Because this is now not legally supported.
Poor light on Infantino’s rise
In addition, the current Fifa President Gianni Infantino was only able to take over the helm of Fifa in 2016 because Platini had been eliminated by the investigations of the federal prosecutor’s office and was therefore unable to succeed Joseph Blatter himself. If the banning of Blatter and Platini is not legally supported, this also casts a bad light on Infantino’s rise to the Fifa throne.
Debacle for the federal prosecutor
Things look even bleaker for the federal prosecutor’s office: It was the then federal prosecutor Michael Lauber who identified Fifa as a target in 2015 and wanted to clean up the world football association because of corruption and fraud. The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office initiated more than 20 proceedings in connection with Fifa.
But the mountain has given birth to a mouse: only three cases have resulted in an indictment. There was a conviction in a less important case. But the main proceedings either petered out or they became statute-barred – like the trial of the “summer fairy tale” surrounding the 2006 World Cup in Germany two years ago.
And in the last trial there were finally two acquittals. This leads to the conclusion: For the federal prosecutor, the whole Fifa complex is a single debacle.