Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and ex-UEFA chief Michel Platini were acquitted for the second time by a Swiss court on Tuesday, ending a decade-long legal saga over a contentious EUR 2.1 million payment that upended their careers and reshaped global football governance, converging media reported.
Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court dismissed fraud, forgery, and misappropriation charges tied to a 2011 payment Blatter authorized to Platini for advisory work done between 1998 and 2002.
Prosecutors had sought 20-month suspended sentences after appealing an initial 2022 acquittal.
The pair maintained the payment and honored a verbal “gentleman’s agreement,” a defense upheld across five judicial bodies, including FIFA tribunals and the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Platini’s lawyer, Dominic Nellen, declared the case “definitively failed” and urged authorities to “leave [Platini] in peace,” Euronews reported. Prosecutors retain the option to appeal to Switzerland’s Supreme Court.
The payment, unearthed during the 2015 FIFA corruption scandal that triggered US and Swiss investigations, led to their suspension. Platini, once a frontrunner to succeed Blatter as FIFA president, saw his ban expire in 2019. Blatter, 89, remains barred from football until 2028 over separate ethics violations linked to World Cup bonuses.
The ruling closes a chapter in a scandal that exposed systemic corruption in football’s governing bodies, though Blatter and Platini’s reputations—and careers—remain irreparably tarnished.
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