Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and French football legend Michel Platini have both been cleared of corruption by a Swiss court.
Blatter, who ran FIFA for 17 years, was acquitted of fraud by the Federal Criminal Court in the southern city of Bellinzona, while Platini, a former captain and manager of the French national team, was also acquitted of fraud. The two, once among the most powerful figures in the world, had denied the charges against them.
Prosecutors had accused Blatter, a Swiss who ran football’s global governing body for 17 years, and Platini of wrongfully arranging for FIFA to pay the Frenchman two million Swiss francs (£1.3 million) in 2011.
The case meant Blatter ended his rule as FIFA president in disgrace and it shattered Platini’s hopes of succeeding him after being banned from football when the affair came to light.
Blatter, 86, had said the two million franc payment followed a “gentlemen’s agreement” between the pair when he asked Platini to be his technical adviser in 1998.
Platini, 67, worked as a consultant between 1998 and 2002 with an annual salary of Swiss francs 300,000 – the highest amount FIFA could afford due to money problems the organization was experiencing at the time, Blatter has told the court.
The rest of Platini’s $1 million a year salary would be settled at a later date, Blatter said.
The motives for the payment were unclear, although the two men met in 2010 and discussed the upcoming 2011 FIFA presidential election.
When Blatter approved the payment, he campaigned for re-election against Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar. Platini, then UEFA president, was seen as holding sway over European members who could influence the vote.
The payment came after a major investigation launched in 2015 by the US Department of Justice into bribery, fraud and money laundering at FIFA, which led to Blatter’s resignation.
Both officials were banned from football for eight years in 2015 for the payment, although their bans were later reduced.
Platini, who also lost his job as UEFA president after the ban, said the affair was a deliberate attempt to thwart his bid to become FIFA president in 2015.
Platini’s former UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino competed in the FIFA race and won the 2016 election.