For Joseph Blatter and Michel Platini, accused of fraud, a years-long nightmare has come to an end with their acquittal. It’s not closure: Platini wants to go for extra time.
Bellinzona – Immediately after the acquittal, Joseph Blatter and Michel Platini reached for their cell phones and texted eagerly. When it was all over, the once powerful FIFA boss Blatter fell into the arms of his troubled daughter.
After seven years under suspicion of fraud, top former soccer officials have been cleared of charges of fraud and other crimes by Switzerland’s highest criminal court. “I am a happy man,” Blatter said later outside the court. Former UEFA chief Platini spoke of a “great victory for me.”
Judge Contu: “In dubio pro reo”.
Judge Joséphine Contu considered her version of the collusion to pay millions more plausible than the doubts the prosecution had about it. “In dubio pro reo,” she said at the sentencing in Bellinzona, “the benefit of the doubt for the accused – this results in a comprehensive acquittal.”
Blatter, 86, president of soccer’s world governing body until 2016, and Platini, 67, once president of the European Football Union, reacted with relief and satisfaction. It was clear that the ban imposed on them by FIFA at the time was unjustified.
Both had come to court confident of victory. After the acquittal, Blatter posed for the cameras with his thumbs up and a broad grin. “I am an honest man, I am clean,” Blatter said. He said he believed in God and the Swiss justice system, and would now go home in peace. Platini, on the other hand, appeared combative. For him, the matter is not through yet, he said.
A “gentleman’s agreement” according to the defendants
What was it all about? Blatter had waved through a payment of two million Swiss francs (today about 2.02 million euros) from FIFA’s coffers for Platini in 2011. It was about outstanding payments for Platini’s consultancy work from 1998 to 2002, and it was based on verbal agreements. A gentleman’s agreement – male friendship, in other words.
The judge believed the two, also that the sum did not correspond to oral agreements and that the money was paid years later. Platini had not needed the money at all, she said. On the other hand, she had doubts about the version of the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, which believed that Blatter and Platini had invented the verbal contract as a sham in order to slip Platini two million francs.
Media speculation at the time was that Blatter wanted to use the payment to secure Platini’s support in his bid for re-election to a new term in 2011 against a challenger. In return, according to speculation, he promised Platini to build him up as his successor for 2015.
Platini continues to show combativeness
Intrigue, power games and mousehandling – this is not unfamiliar territory for FIFA. After all, that’s exactly what Platini is accusing his former friends of today. The completely correct payment of back fees in 2011 was only called into question at the moment when he was about to make his greatest career leap: The application for the office of FIFA president. The investigation prevented that. Referring to FIFA’s internal investigation, Platini said in Bellinzona after the verdict: “They treated me as a briber and money launderer, I won’t let that go.” What he plans to do remained vague.
His lawyer quoted Platini in a statement as saying, “In this terrible case, there are guilty parties who have not appeared in this trial. I guarantee them: We will meet again.” He said he “will not let up and will go to the end in search of the truth.”
The prosecution does not want to decide how to proceed until it has studied the written reasons for the verdict. It could appeal. The verdict is not yet final. FIFA also said it would wait for the court’s complete ruling before deciding on further steps.
FIFA boss Infantino also in focus
The current FIFA boss Gianni Infantino, who took over from Platini as Blatter’s successor in 2016, has benefited from the investigations against Platini. Whether he catapulted himself into office with targeted chess moves could soon become public. A criminal investigation is underway because Infantino met secretly several times shortly after taking office with Michael Lauber, the Swiss chief prosecutor at the time who was leading the FIFA investigation.
The meetings, held in back rooms of a luxury hotel in Bern, were not minuted, and no one reportedly remembers the contents. Lauber stumbled over the “Schweizerhof affair” and had to resign.
Platini filed charges against Infantino a few months ago. “Is her soccer career over?” asked a journalist in Bellinzona after the verdict. Platini hesitated for a long time. “I don’t know,” the 67-year-old then said, adding, “I’m still so young.” Blatter was 79 when he was re-elected FIFA chief in 2015.
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