Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter had not seen each other since September 7, 2020 and the hearing of the former number 10 of the French football team at the headquarters of the Public Prosecutor of the Confederation (MPC), in Bern. At the time, the two men could already have suspected that they would end up appearing together before the Swiss Federal Criminal Court (TPF) in the case of the alleged unfair payment of 2 million Swiss francs (1.9 million euros ) made to Mr. Platini, in February 2011, by Mr. Blatter.
After more than six years of instruction, the former French president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), from 2007 to 2015, and the former Swiss boss of the International Federation of Football Association (FIFA ), from 1998 to 2015, exchanged many pleasantries upon their arrival at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday June 8 at the TPF in Bellinzona, in the canton of Ticino.
On the first day of their trial for “suspicion of fraud, unfair management, breach of trust and forgery in the titles”, MM. Platini, 66, and Blatter, 86, were in a playful mood in the halls of court. Between the two former leaders of world football, ex-allies who have become irreconcilable rivals, the formal address is however now de rigueur on the bench of the defendants.
“I hope I will be better tomorrow”
Epilogue of an extended political and judicial saga, this trial should bring back to the fore the latent conflict between MM. Platini and Blatter, whose common fall was caused by the opening of criminal proceedings by the MPC on September 24, 2015, in particular because of this payment “ illicit “, according to the prosecution, of 2 million Swiss francs. At the time, the Frenchman had seen his candidacy for the succession of Mr. Blatter torpedoed by the investigations of the prosecution.
The two defendants – who face a maximum sentence of five years in prison – repeat that this payment corresponds to an arrears of wages under an oral agreement in which Mr. Blatter would have undertaken to pay 1 million Swiss francs annually to the French for his mission as technical adviser to the FIFA presidency (1998-2002). The MPC does not believe in this version and believes that the “illegitimate double enrichment” French “has come about through the compensation of 2 million Swiss francs” as well as “the settlement of Platini’s social security debt assumed by FIFA”, i.e. 229,126 Swiss francs.
The hearing of Mr. Blatter, accompanied at the hearing by his daughter, Corinne, was scheduled for Wednesday morning. Due to the state of health of the Valaisan, authorized by his doctors to appear only for four and a half hours in the morning, this interrogation was postponed to Thursday morning, before that of Mr. Platini. “My client has chest pains, he is not able to undergo this interrogation”told the court his lawyer, Lorenz Erni. “I’m not well, I can’t breathe well. I hope I will be better tomorrow”said the octogenarian.
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