Posted by Swiss prosecutors charged former Fifa officials Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini with fraud and other offenses on Tuesday, after a six-year investigation into a disputed payment of 2 million Swiss francs (about £1.35 million).
Blatter, 85, and Platini, 65, both former France internationals, will stand trial in Bellinzona federal criminal court in the coming months.
“This payment damaged Fifa’s assets and unlawfully enriched Platini,” Swiss federal prosecutors said in a statement.
The case, which began in September 2015, resulted in Blatter’s resignation from Fifa ahead of schedule, as well as the demise of then-Uefa President Platini’s bid to succeed his old mentor. It revolves around Platini’s January 2011 written request to Fifa for a backdated supplementary salary for his services as a presidential adviser during Blatter’s first term, from 1998 to 2002.
Blatter gave Fifa permission to make the payment within a few weeks. He was prepared to run for re-election in a race against Qatar’s Mohamed bin Hammam, in which Platini’s clout among European voters was crucial. Both Blatter and Platini have long denied wrongdoing, citing a verbal arrangement they made for the money more than two decades ago.
source : Guardian sport