GENEVA, June 07 (AP): Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini's 11-day trial on charges of defrauding FIFA starts Wednesday - finally bringing the epic downfall of soccer's former world leaders into criminal court.
The fallout from the case ousted Blatter ahead of schedule as president of FIFA and ended Platini's campaign to succeed his former mentor. It also removed Platini as president of UEFA, the governing body of European soccer.
In 2015, federal prosecutors in Switzerland revealed their investigation into a $2 million payment from FIFA to Platini from four years earlier. The pair will go on trial in Bellinzona.
The subsidiary charges include forgery of the invoice in 2011 that allowed Blatter to authorize FIFA to pay the 2 million Swiss francs (about $2 million) Platini had asked for. The claim was for the former France soccer great to be paid extra money for being an advisor - without having a contract for it - in Blatter's first presidential term from 1998-2002.
Both have long denied wrongdoing and claim they had a verbal deal in 1998. That defense first failed with judges at the FIFA ethics committee, which banned them from soccer, and later in separate appeals at the court.
Blatter, Platini go to court in FIFA fraud trial, finally
FE Team | Published: June 07, 2022 21:50:07
Blatter, Platini go to court in FIFA fraud trial, finally
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