Joseph Blatter and Michel Platini are combative

It has been 24 years since a meeting in Singapore that must have been extraordinarily relaxed, even by the standards of football officials who have lost their grip on reality. The then Fifa General Secretary Joseph Blatter asked Michel Platini, who organized the 1998 World Cup in France, for an interview. It was about who would succeed João Havelange, the outgoing president of world football’s governing body.

With their descriptions before the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona on Thursday, Blatter and Platini offered insights into a world in which deals worth millions were sealed with a handshake as a matter of course. “Money issues didn’t play a major role in our conversations,” said Platini, the 1984 European champion. “You have to understand that I was earning very well from the age of 17.”

At that meeting in Singapore, Blatter asked Platini if ​​the Frenchman wanted to become Fifa president. At least that’s how Platini described it, who claims to have rejected it spontaneously. With comedic talent, he reproduced the dialogue that is said to have taken place in the episode.

Blatter is said to have said after Platini waved him off: “Then I’ll just become president.” Platini in turn: “With pleasure, good luck.” The Swiss didn’t give up and offered Platini a Fifa position as a technical advisor if he was elected. He immediately asked what the Frenchman was asking for it.

Platini: “I want a million a year.” – Blatter: «In what currency?» – Platini: “Petatas, rubles, marks, you decide.” – Blatter: “I’ll give you francs.”

Michel Platini presents himself as a jovially grinning man of the world

The fact that they were so short in their shirts was also fatal to the two former officials. Their careers ended abruptly in 2015 because they were targeted by the federal prosecutor for a transfer of two million francs that was difficult to explain. Both protagonists now chose to flee to the front: They did not regret the obvious waiver of formally correct procedure, but rather presented it in court as completely normal.

In an almost exaggerated form, Blatter mimicked the kind of Blatter that the public always thought they knew: full of mischievousness and charm and at the same time country innocence. And Platini staged Platini, as a satirist could hardly do better, as an always jovially grinning man of the world. Both played their roles pretty well.

Initially, Platini received only 300,000 francs per year for his consulting work from 1998 to 2002. According to Blatter, Fifa was not able to transfer the full amount promised at the time. The world football association was financially very bad at the time. This was due to the bankruptcy of the marketing company ISL, the insolvency of Leo Kirch and the attacks of September 11, because insurance had become massively expensive as a result.

Court presiding judge Joséphine Contu Albrizio asked Platini why he initially settled for a fraction of the promised million-euro payment. “As I’m sure you understood, it wasn’t vital for me,” was the reply. “I have a policy of not asking for money from people who owe me some.”

In 2011, Platini made an exception. After all, he sent Fifa a bill for two million francs, which Blatter promptly signed. Because of the proximity to the presidential election that year, there is a suspicion that Blatter compensated Platini for not running. Platini naturally presented things differently in Bellinzona. He found out that Fifa had granted their former executives Urs Linsi and Jérôme Champagne enormous severance payments, according to the Frenchman: “I said to myself, it might be good to remind them that they still owe me money.”

It’s up to anyone to believe the story of the million-dollar-a-year demand that is said to have originated in Singapore. But anyone who does this must conclude that Platini would have subsequently even granted 2.8 million francs: he would have received 700,000 francs too little for four years. When asked about this, Platini put on his most jovial grin: “I was wrong.”

In the meantime, the two fallen officials may have fallen out. In Bellinzona, however, they showed no sign of it. The performances they presented fitted together flawlessly. During a break in the meeting, the men happened to meet in front of the toilet, and for a brief moment they must have felt almost unobserved. Platini gave Blatter a friendly slap on the shoulder. Both laughed and joked. An enmity looks different.

Thormann presents his version far too late

A surprise also occurred during the questioning of the lawyer Olivier Thormann, who had initially led the proceedings of the federal prosecutor. He stated that during a house search at Fifa headquarters on May 27, 2015, he had received numerous documents from Markus Kattner, the organization’s chief financial officer at the time. In relation to the two-million payment, Kattner approached him again that day: This was particularly in need of explanation.

In this way, Kattner of all people is said to have triggered the criminal proceedings against his superior Blatter. That can hardly have been intentional. Kattner is the only one of Blatter’s former top staff who hasn’t demonstratively turned his back on the ex-president and is still in contact with him.

But Thormann’s account should also be viewed with caution. He recently received a call from special prosecutor Ulrich Weder. The latter informed him that he, Thormann, had recently also become an accuser in the ongoing proceedings against Blatter’s Fifa successor Gianni Infantino and former federal prosecutor Michael Lauber. Former Fifa chief lawyer Marco Villiger received an identical message. Both are still awaiting formal notice.

Thormann has good reasons to give the impression that the federal prosecutor’s office correctly investigated in 2015. That may explain why he’s trying to draw attention to Kattner. Possibly would the version also exonerate Infantino, who was temporarily assumed to have played an indirect informant role. But Thormann presented the version to the public far too late.