In November 2022, Qatar found itself called into question, a few days before the opening of “its” Football World Cup. An investigation of Sunday Times and the NGO The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) presented the gas emirate as the alleged sponsor of a global espionage operation targeting personalities – investigative journalists, political leaders, lawyers – linked to the controversial attribution , in December 2010, of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, or criticism of the tournament’s host country.
According to our information, a preliminary investigation opened in November 2022 to “attack on an automated data processing system”, “theft and violation of the secrecy of correspondence” was dismissed by the Paris public prosecutor’s office on January 12, 2024. It concerned the hacking of which former Blues number 10 Michel Platini was subjected in 2019.
“The offenses could not be sufficiently characterized”, confirm to World the Paris prosecutor’s office. This procedure was initiated after a complaint filed by Mr. Platini, whose email address was hacked. “Unfortunately, I will never know why I was hacked”he reacts.
Suspicion of influence
Alleged victim of “hackers” supposedly linked to the emirate, the former president (2007-2015) of the Union of European Football Associations was heard as a complainant, on January 4, 2023, at his home in Cassis ( Bouches-du-Rhône). The investigations were carried out by the Central Office for Combating Crime Linked to Information and Communication Technologies.
The former number 10 of the Blues is suspected by French justice of having voted for Qatar, in December 2010, during the 2022 World Cup award ballot, under the influence of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Which he disputes.
Mr. Platini, who had already been questioned as a free suspect by the national financial prosecutor’s office in December 2017 in the context of this affair, was the target of a successful hack from May 2019, a few weeks before a new hearing by justice. He was taken into custody on June 18, 2019, and is not facing any charges to date.
His son, Laurent, is also not being prosecuted at this stage. It was heard, in April 2022, as “freely implicated” by the investigating judges responsible for judicial information on the attribution of the 2022 World Cup.
Two other investigations without notice of classification
Laurent Platini intrigues investigators to the extent that he was recruited, in December 2011, “after a series of interviews”, according to the Platini camp, as a consultant within Pilatus Sport MGMT, a holding company owned by the Qatari fund Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) – owner of Paris-Saint-Germain since June 2011 – and which manages the Burrda Sport equipment brand. In March 2012, “on proposal from QSI”according to the Platini camp, he became transitional CEO of Burrda.
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