Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and France football legend Michel Platini have been cleared of fraud for a second time.
The former FIFA president and former UEFA president were accused of fraud, forgery, mismanagement and misappropriation of more than $2 million of FIFA money in 2011.
The attorney general’s office in Switzerland had challenged a first acquittal in July 2022 and asked for sentences of 20 months, suspended for two years.
Blatter, 89, and Platini, 69, once among of the most powerful figures in football, have consistently denied wrongdoing.
Former UEFA President Michel Platini.
Pic: Reuters
They were cleared of fraud at the Extraordinary Appeals Chamber of the Swiss Criminal Court in the town of Muttenz, near Basel.
Blatter approved FIFA paying 2m Swiss francs (now $2.21m) to France soccer great Platini in February 2011 for supplementary and non-contracted salary working as a presidential advisor from 1998-2002.
The Swiss federal investigation emerged in September 2015 as Platini was a strong favourite to succeed his one-time mentor in an upcoming election.
The probe kicked off events which would ultimately bring to an end the careers of football’s most powerful men.
Though federal court trials have twice cleared their names, Blatter’s reputation likely always will be tied to leading FIFA during corruption crises that took down a swath of senior soccer officials worldwide.
Platini, one of soccer’s greatest players and later Blatter’s protégé in soccer politics, never did get the FIFA presidency he often called his destiny.
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