GENEVA , — After a six-year investigation into the controversial $2 million payment, former FIFA officials Sepp Blatter & Michel Platini were arrested Tuesday by Swiss prosecutors.
Platini, 66 year-old, and Blatter, 85 years old, are now facing a federal criminal court in Bellinzona. Although they could spend several years in prison if found guilty of the charges, Swiss cases can take many years to resolve.
“This payment damaged FIFA’s assets and illegally enriched Platini,” Swiss federal prosecutor said in a statement.
In September 2015, the case was opened and Blatter was ousted ahead of schedule. It also ended Platini’s attempt to succeed his mentor.
It revolves around Platini’s January 2011 request to FIFA for a backdated salary increase to cover his work as a presidential advisor in Blatter’s first term (1998)-2002.
Blatter instructed FIFA to pay the money within weeks. Platini’s influence among European voters was key to his campaign for reelection against Mohamed bin Hammam, the incumbent.
Prosecutors stated that the evidence collected by (attorney general’s office) supports the conclusion that Platini’s payment was made without legal basis.
Blatter and Platini both have long denied wrongdoing, and cited a verbal arrangement they had made more than 20 years ago for the money to come.
Blatter was charged with fraud and mismanagement as well as misappropriation of FIFA funds. Platini was charged with fraud and misappropriation as well as forgery.
Forgery and fraud can result in prison sentences up to five years.
Blatter stated in a statement that she views the proceedings at the federal court criminal with optimism and hopes that the story will end and all facts will be resolved.
Platini was not placed under formal inquiry until last year . Months later, the more serious allegation that both men were guilty of fraud was added.
Three-time Ballon d’Or winner and captain of France’s national team during the 1984 European Championship, he said Tuesday that he was confident and calm about Tuesday’s outcome.
Platini stated in a statement that “I fully challenge these unfounded, unfair accusations.”
Blatter reiterated Tuesday that Platini had long stated, and Blatter has repeated it again Tuesday, that he declared the payment in Switzerland and paid taxes on it.
Blatter was the target of criminal proceedings by the authorities. This followed a raid on FIFA headquarters in Zurich, where police searched for Blatter and Platini.
This was four months after an extensive U.S. Department of Justice corruption probe into world soccer was exposed with early-morning detentions of officials from America at luxury hotels in Zurich, May 2015.
Blatter, just days after being elected FIFA president five times, announced that he would resign and hold another vote to choose a successor.
Platini was long considered the FIFA heir, but his campaign was thwarted by the police visit at FIFA’s offices.
Both men were quickly suspended by the FIFA ethics committee for several weeks, before being banned for six years.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced Platini’s ban to four years after he appealed. He was cleared to resume soccer duty in October 2019. Platini had been linked to a seat on FIFPRO’s executive board, the global association of soccer player unions.
Blatter was in poor health, and a final round by Swiss investigators was delayed to August.
Blatter was in an induced coma for a week after undergoing heart surgery in December.
A separate criminal proceeding is also being brought against Blatter in connection to the $1million FIFA payment to Trinidad and Tobago for 2010. This was under the control of Jack Warner, then vice president of FIFA. In that investigation, two former FIFA officials are also being investigated.
After turmoil at the attorney general’s offices, the Swiss investigation of Blatter and later Platini was refocused by Thomas Hildbrand, who joined the case. Olivier Thormann, the former lead prosecutor in the case, resigned from the federal office in 2018 after being cleared of a misconduct complaint.
Hildbrand is also from the same town as Blatter. He was then appointed to the investigation team. Hildbrand has a reputation for having led a high-profile case related to FIFA: the financial collapse of World Cup marketing company ISL in 2001. Blatter’s lawyers failed to remove Hildbrand from the case.
Michael Lauber, , the attorney general responsible for overseeing FIFA investigations in Switzerland was forced to resign last year due to misconduct. An internal investigation found that he had misled investigators into undeclared meetings with Gianni Infantino, current FIFA president.
After being elected as UEFA’s emergency candidate after Platini was banned and suspended, Infantino was elected as FIFA’s leader in 2016.
