Former allies who have become irreconcilable rivals, Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini will meet again for the duration of a trial. The former president of the International Football Federation (FIFA) and the former boss of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) will appear from June 8 to 22 before the Criminal Court of the Federal Criminal Court (TPF) Switzerland of Bellinzona, during a hearing which promises to be the culmination of a political and judicial saga of more than six years.
Mr. Blatter, 86, will be tried for “suspicions of fraud, alternatively, breach of trust, even more alternatively, unfair management as well as forgery in the titles”. As for the ex-number 10 of the Blues, 66, who had not been able to seek the succession of Mr. Blatter at the head of FIFA, in 2016, because of this affair, he will appear for “suspicions of fraud, subsidiarily, of participation in breach of trust, even more subsidiarily, of participation in unfair management, as an accomplice, as well as forgery in the titles “.
After six years of proceedings, the Public Prosecutor of the Swiss Confederation (MPC) filed, in November 2021, an indictment against the two former leaders in connection with the alleged unfair payment of 2 million Swiss francs that M Blatter did, in February 2011, to Mr. Platini. The TPF has validated the MPC’s indictment and the hearings will be held in German.
In his November indictment, that The world consulted, federal prosecutor Thomas Hildebrand accuses the two men of having ” deceived “ Markus Kattner, then FIFA Chief Financial Officer, by making “to argue that a claim existed between Platini and FIFA, insofar as Platini initially told Mr. Kattner, before or on February 26, 2010, contrary to the facts, that FIFA still owed him money for his work to advise [auprès de M. Blatter] carried out during the years 1999-2002 ».
The 2011 bill
The MPC recalls that Mr. Platini sent Mr. Kattner, on January 17, 2011, a “bill for a net amount of 2 million Swiss francs and asserts an agreement which did not actually exist concerning a salary payment of 500,000 Swiss francs per year for the years 1998-1999, 1999-2000, 2000- 2001 and 2001-2002, but would have been postponed. In addition, he demanded the payment of all social security contributions relating to this amount, including those payable by the employee. »
Before that, according to the MPC, Mr. Kattner “had established by two employees of the finance department, for the first time before or on February 26, 2010, then in March and July 2010, an overview of the compensation paid to Platini by FIFA for his activities as an adviser carried out from 1998, even 1999”.
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