Swiss federal prosecutors finally ended their case against former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and former UEFA president Michel Platini yesterday, after 10 years and acquittals after two trials.

The office of Switzerland’s attorney general said it would not appeal against acquittals for both men in March at an appeal court.

The first trial was in 2022 on charges of fraud, forgery, mismanagement and misappropriation of more than US$2 million of FIFA money in 2011. Both men denied wrongdoing and claimed it was delayed payment for contracted work done as a FIFA advisor during Blatter’s first term as president through 2002.

”Following the failure of the criminal proceedings, the defence will now analyse how to take legal action against those responsible for initiating the proceedings,” Platini’s lawyer, Dominic Nellen, said in a statement.

The payment of FIFA money to France football great Platini emerged in 2015 during federal investigations of the governing body and international football officials by federal investigators in the United States and Switzerland.

The allegations were not proven in court but led to both men being removed from office. In the following elections in 2016, Gianni Infantino became FIFA president and Aleksander Ceferin became UEFA president.

“Among other things, the criminal proceedings prevented (Platini’s) election as FIFA president in 2016,” his lawyer Nellen said. “The criminal proceedings had not only legal but also massive personal and professional consequences for Michel Platini — even though no incriminating evidence was ever presented.”

Swiss prosecutors said yesterday that, by accepting the appeal court verdicts, it is “closing another chapter in the complex procedures related to football”.(The Bleaner)

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