As in the first instance in 2022, the Court of Extraordinary Appeal of the Federal Criminal Court gathered in Muttenz, Switzerland, dismissed the request of the Prosecutor’s Office that He had required 20 months in prison in suspense for each of the defendants.
After almost 10 years of a process that frustrated Platini’s ambition to access the presidency of FIFAthere is still the possibility of a last resort before the Swiss federal court, but only based on limited legal motives.
“The finesque of FIFA and some Swiss federal prosecutors for 10 years have ended. Today my honor has returned to me and I am very satisfied“, Platini reaction to the press shortly after hearing the sentence.
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“Caballeros Pact”
The excapitan of the Bleus added that from the beginning the sole objective of this case was prevent him from being president of FIFA. “I know that for my enemies, the important thing was time … they have separated me for 10 years,” he added.
For four days, the excapitan of the Bleus, 69, and the former world football leader of 89, appeared again before the Swiss justice, which accused them of having illegally obtained, to the detriment of FIFA, A payment of two million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros to change), in favor of Michel Platini.
Defense and accusation coincided at one point: the triple Golden Ball advised Blatter between 1998 and 2002during the first mandate of the Swiss at the head of FIFA, and both agreed in 1999 a contract with a remuneration of 300 thousand francs for that work, entirely paid by the instance.
“Coherent arguments”
But in January 2011, Platini, who became president of UEFA from 2007 to 2015, demanded a debt of two million francs, qualified by The accusation of false invoice.
Both former leaders always assured that at first they had agreed, through an oral and witness gentlemen pact, A salary of one million francs, but that the poor state of FIFA’s finances prevented the immediate payment of that money.
The Swiss court considered that The arguments of the two defendants are globally coherent at the essential points and described as credible that Platini agreed such a high salary taking into account his reputation and his past as a footballer.
This case pushed Platini to opt for the presidency of FIFA in February 2016, when Gianni Infantino was elected, until then the right arm of French in UEFA.