Two former football executives, International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) President Sepp Blatter and Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) President Michel Platini, have been cleared of all corruption charges.
The decision came almost two and a half years after the pair were initially acquitted. They had been charged for fraud, forgery, mismanagement and misappropriation of €2.1 million paid by Blatter to Platini in February 2011 for supplementary and non-contact salary work as a presidential advisor between 1998 and 2002. Platini had said that the payments were deferred as FIFA did not have the funds to pay him in full at the time.
A federal criminal appeals court in Switzerland supported Platini’s claim as they deemed the method of payment legal. While the attorney general’s office was initially pushing for a 20-month suspended sentence, they were able to convince the court that the funds were used for legitimate consultancy work.
Details of the payment first emerged in May 2015 when American federal investigators found evidence against international football officials. This led to several arrests being made in Zurich and the seizing of several FIFA financial and business records.
Prior to the scandal, Platini had been tipped to succeed Blatter as FIFA President. However, both were suspended by the FIFA Ethics committee in October 2015, resulting in Blatter’s impeachment and Gianni Infantino being elected as the next president on Feb. 26. 2016.
Since Blatter’s impeachment, he has been banned for six years which started on Mar. 24. 2021. It was the second six year ban he had received from FIFA as the first was a reduced suspension from eight years to six that began on Feb. 24. 2016. However, this is not the first time Blatter had received a sanction from FIFA as he is currently exiled from football until late 2028 as a result of a self prosecution that accused Blatter and other high-ranking officials of awarding themselves large pay raises and World Cup bonuses that reached north of $80 million.
