The former president of UEFA and the ex-boss of FIFA appeared on Wednesday before the TPF of Bellinzone for the first day of their trial. The hearing of Sepp Blatter, 86, was postponed to Thursday.
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Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter had not seen each other since September 7, 2020 and the hearing of the former Numéro 10 of the French football team at the headquarters of the public prosecutor of the Confederation (MPC), in Bern. At the time, the two men could already suspect that they would end up appearing together before the Swiss Federal Criminal Court (TPF) in the alleged disloyal payment case of 2 million Swiss francs (1.9 million euros ) Made to Mr. Platini, in February 2011, by Mr. Blatter.
At the end of more than six years of education, the former French president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), from 2007 to 2015, and the former Swiss boss of the International Football Federation Association (FIFA), from 1998 to 2015, exchanged many kinds on their arrival at 8:30 am, Wednesday June 8, at the TPF of Bellinzone, in the canton of Ticino.
On the first day of their trial for “suspicions of scam, unfair management, breach of trust and false in the titles”, MM. Platini, 66, and Blatter, 86, were in a badine mood in the corridors of the court. Between the two former leaders of world football, ex-allys who have become irreconcilable rivals, the vouvoire is however now of rigor on the bench of defendants.
“I hope I will go better tomorrow”
Epilogue of a extended politico-judicial saga, this trial should give the front conflict between MM. Platini and Blatter, whose common fall was caused by the opening of MPC criminal procedure on September 24, 2015, in particular because of this “illicit” payment, according to the accusation, of 2 million Swiss francs. At the time, the Frenchman had seen his candidacy for the succession of Mr. Blatter torpedoed by the investigations of the prosecution.
The two prevalents – who risk a maximum sentence of five years in prison – repeat that this payment corresponds to a wage backwards under an oral agreement during which Mr. Blatter would have committed to pay 1 million Swiss francs Annual to French for its mission as a technical advisor to the presidency of FIFA (1998-2002). The MPC does not believe in this version and believes that the “illegitimate double enrichment” of the French “was carried out by the compensation of 2 million Swiss francs” as well as “the regulations of the social security debt of Platini assumed by FIFA “, or 229,126 Swiss francs.
The hearing of Mr. Blatter, accompanied at the hearing of his daughter, Corinne, was scheduled for Wednesday morning. Due to the state of health of Valaisan, authorized by his doctors to appear only for four and a half hours in the morning, this interrogation was postponed to Thursday morning, before that of Mr. Platini. “My client has chest pain, he is not able to undergo this interrogation,” said his lawyer, Lorenz Erni. “I’m not doing well, I can’t breathe well. I hope I will go better tomorrow,” said the octogenarian.
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