Sepp Blatter And Michel Platini Face Criminal Charges

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter (right) and his ex-UEFA counterpart Michel Platini (left) have been charged with fraud in Switzerland.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) accuses both men of unlawfully arranging a payment of 2 million Swiss Francs from FIFA to Platini.

In January 2011, Platini demanded FIFA pay him backdated extra salary for working as a presidential adviser during Blatter’s first term, from 1998 to 2002. Blatter authorized the payment at a point when he was preparing to campaign for re-election and needed European backing, where Platini was influential.

Blatter said the payment had been approved by “all responsible FIFA bodies” and that Platini had paid tax on the amount “at his Swiss place of residence”.

However, the evidence gathered by the Swiss attorney general’s office has corroborated that this payment to Platini was made “without a legal basis”.

“This payment damaged FIFA’s assets and unlawfully enriched Platini,”  Swiss federal prosecutors said in a statement.

He and Platini, who have long denied wrongdoing, could now face a trial within months.

As well as fraud, Blatter is charged with mismanagement, misappropriation of FIFA funds and forgery of a document, while Platini is charged with fraud, misappropriation, forgery and being an accomplice to Blatter’s alleged mismanagement.

If found guilty of the charges, the pair could receive prison sentences of several years or fines.

The case was opened in September 2015 after FIFA, football’s world governing body, was dogged by accusations of widespread corruption.