The former FIFA president and former UEFA president were acquitted for a second time on charges of fraud, forgery, mismanagement and misappropriation of more than $2 million of FIFA money in 2011.

Blatter, now aged 89, gave little reaction listening to the verdict of three cantonal (state) judges acting as a federal criminal appeals court. Sitting in the row in front of Platini, Blatter alternately tapped his fingers on his desk or held his left hand over his mouth.

Platini sat with his arms folded or rubbing his hands as he listened to a translator sitting beside him relating the court’s verdict in German into his native French.

The attorney general’s office in Switzerland had challenged a first acquittal in July 2022 and asked for sentences of 20 months, suspended for two years. The indictment alleged the payment “damaged FIFA’s assets and unlawfully enriched Platini.”

“Michel Platini must finally be left in peace in criminal matters,” his lawyer Dominic Nellen said in a statement. ”After two acquittals, even the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland must realize that these criminal proceedings have definitively failed.”

A further appeal to the Swiss supreme court can be filed by prosecutors.

Decade-long case

Blatter and Platini have consistently denied wrongdoing in a decade-long case that swung on their claims of a verbal agreement to one day settle the money in question.

Blatter approved FIFA paying 2 million Swiss francs (now $2.21 million) to France soccer great Platini in February 2011 for supplementary and non-contracted salary working as a presidential advisor from 1998-2002.

The latest win for Blatter and the 69-year-old Platini came exactly 9½ years since the Swiss federal investigation was revealed and kicked off events that ended the careers of soccer’s most powerful men.

That September 2015 day in Zurich, police came to interrogate them at FIFA after an executive committee meeting when Platini was a strong favorite to succeed his one-time mentor in an upcoming election.

Corruption crises

Though federal court trials have twice cleared their names, Blatter’s reputation likely always will be tied to leading FIFA during corruption crises that took down a swath of senior soccer officials worldwide.

Platini, one of soccer’s greatest players and later Blatter’s protégé in soccer politics, never did get the FIFA presidency he often called his destiny.

Neither Blatter nor Platini has worked in soccer since they were suspended by the FIFA ethics committee in October 2015. They were later banned and failed to overturn the bans in separate appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2016.

”The criminal proceedings have had not only legal but also massive personal and professional consequences for Michel Platini, although no incriminating evidence was ever presented,” Nellen said, suggesting further legal action “against those responsible for the criminal proceedings.”

Platini’s ban expired in 2019 and Blatter was given a subsequent ban by FIFA in 2021 months before his first was due to end.

Blatter is exiled from soccer until late in 2028 — when he will be 92 — because of an ethics prosecution of alleged self-dealing in eight-figure management bonuses paid for successfully organizing the men’s World Cup in 2010 and 2014.

‘Gentleman’s agreement’

The verdict was given Tuesday in a low-key provincial courthouse where a four-day trial was held three weeks ago.

Blatter and Platini have claimed at five different judicial bodies — twice at FIFA, then the Court of Arbitration for Sport and now two Swiss federal criminal courts — that they had a verbal “gentleman’s agreement” to one day settle the unpaid and non-contracted salary.

Platini was a storied former captain and coach of the France national term when he worked to help Blatter get elected to lead FIFA in Paris on the eve of the 1998 World Cup he organized.

The two men said Platini agreed to be a presidential adviser on an annual salary of 300,000 Swiss francs (now $340,000) through 2002. They claim there was a verbal deal to later get the balance of 1 million Swiss francs for each year that FIFA could not pay at the time.

Platini started asking for the money early in 2010, citing seven-figure payments made to senior Blatter aides who left FIFA which showed the soccer body could afford to pay him. The payment was finally made in February 2011.

Details of the payment only emerged in the crisis that hit FIFA in May 2015 when U.S. federal investigators unsealed a sweeping investigation of international soccer officials. Swiss authorities made early-morning arrests at hotels in Zurich before seizing FIFA financial and business records.

In 2015, Swiss federal prosecutors already were handling a criminal complaint filed by FIFA. That was about suspected financial wrongdoing linked to votes in December 2010 that picked Russia and Qatar as future World Cup hosts.

In 2022, the pair were acquitted in a trial over a payment of 2m Swiss francs (£1.6m) made to Platini and authorised by Blatter in 2011.

Both men denied wrongdoing and said the transfer was belated payment for Fifa advisory work by Platini, who formerly led European football’s governing body Uefa.

But the Swiss federal prosecutor appealed against the decision. The new trial is expected to last until Thursday, with a verdict due on 25 March.

The pair appeared before an appeals court in Muttenz, near Basel, on Monday. Blatter, 88, reaffirmed that he was innocent.

“When you talk about falsehoods, lies and deception, that’s not me. That didn’t exist in my whole life,” he told the court.

A lawyer for Platini, 69, said the lower court that acquitted the pair in 2022 had been “right to find that the disputed payment of 2m francs was lawful”.

Platini had an illustrious playing career and is a three-time winner of the Ballon d’Or – Europe’s highest individual football award.

He captained France to victory at the 1984 European Championship and won the 1985 European Cup with Juventus. He went on to coach the French national team and became Uefa president in 2007.

In 2015, prosecutors accused the pair of deceiving Fifa about payments made to Platini.

In his testimony at the first trial, Blatter said that he had asked Platini to work as his adviser in 1998. He added that at the time, Fifa could not afford the 1m Swiss francs annual fee requested by Platini.

They instead settled on partial payment, with the outstanding balance to be paid at a later date. Platini said during the trial: “I trusted the president, and knew he would pay me one day.”

He stopped working for Fifa in 2002 but initially did not pursue the payment as he told the court he had not needed the money at the time, and – according to Blatter – Fifa was “broke”. In January 2011, however, Platini felt he was in a position to send an invoice and the money was paid after approval by Blatter.

Following an investigation launched in 2015, Swiss prosecutors accused Blatter and Platini of forgery and fraud.

Also in 2015, Fifa suspended both men from football for ethics breaches – originally for eight years, although their exclusions were later reduced.

In 2022, Switzerland’s federal criminal court in Bellinzona cleared the two after accepting their account of a “gentlemen’s agreement” for the payment.

Swiss businessman and sports administrator Blatter joined Fifa in 1975, became general secretary in 1981 and then president of world football’s governing body in 1998.

He remained in the role for 17 years until resigning amid corruption investigations. Platini later withdrew his own candidacy for president.

The pair stood trial over a payment of 2m Swiss francs (£1.6m) made by Blatter to Platini in 2011.

Both men had denied wrongdoing and said the transfer was belated payment for Platini’s advisory work for Fifa.

On his arrival at the court on Friday, Blatter said: “I am not innocent in my life but in this case I am innocent.”

Blatter, 86, and former Uefa president Platini, 67, were banned from football in 2015 and indicted last November.

I won a first game – Platini

Following a case that was opened in 2015, their 11-day trial over the 2011 payment took place at the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona and concluded on 22 June.

“I wanted to express my happiness for all my loved ones that justice has finally been done after seven years of lies and manipulation,” said Platini.

“The truth has come to light during this trial and I deeply thank the judges of the tribunal for the independence of their decision.

“I kept saying it – my fight is a fight against injustice. I won a first game.

“In this case, there are culprits who did not appear during this trial. Let them count on me, we will meet again because I will not give up and I will go all the way in my quest for truth.”

Frenchman Platini had an illustrious playing career in football and is a three-time Ballon d’Or winner.

He captained France to victory at the 1984 European Championship and won the 1985 European Cup with Juventus.

Platini later went on to coach the French national team and became Uefa president in 2007.

When his own conduct was investigated by Fifa’s ethics committee as part of a wider bid to root out corruption from the organisation, he stood down from the presidency of Uefa and was subsequently banned from football for eight years, though that was later reduced to four.

His appeal against the ban was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) in 2020.

“Believe me, going from being a legend of world soccer to a devil is very difficult, especially when it comes to you in a totally unfair way,” added Platini.

What happened during the trial?

In his testimony during the trial, Blatter said he asked Platini to be his adviser when he was first appointed president of football’s world governing body in 1998.

He said former France captain Platini wanted 1m Swiss francs (£816,030) per year but Blatter told him Fifa could not afford that fee.

They instead settled on 300,000 Swiss francs (£244,809) per year, with the outstanding total to be paid at a later date.

“I knew when we started with Michel Platini that is not the total, and we would look at it later,” Blatter had told the court during the trial, adding they shook hands on their “gentleman’s agreement”.

He added: “It was an agreement between two sportsmen. I found nothing wrong with that.”

Platini said: “I trusted the president, and knew he would pay me one day.”

Platini stopped working for Fifa in 2002 but did not pursue the payment until 2010, telling the court he had not needed the money at the time of his departure, when – according to Blatter – Fifa was in any case “broke”.

However, Platini later heard that two former employees had received substantial payments and approached Fifa, who he said told him to send an invoice. He did so in January 2011, with the money paid 10 days later after approval by Blatter.

The Swiss Office of the Attorney General accused Blatter and Platini of “fraud, in the alternative of misappropriation, in the further alternative of criminal mismanagement as well as of forgery of a document”.

Platini, who was also charged as an accomplice, said he felt the ban was a deliberate attempt to stop him from becoming Fifa president in 2015.

Swiss prosecutors say Blatter unlawfully arranged a transfer of 2m Swiss francs (£1.6m) to Platini in 2011.

Blatter and Platini – who were indicted in November – have both previously denied any wrongdoing.

If found guilty, they could receive prison sentences or fines.

The case was opened in September 2015 after Fifa, football’s world governing body, was dogged by accusations of widespread corruption.

Fifa’s ethics committee launched an investigation which saw both men banned from the game and forced to leave their positions.

The Swiss case centres on a request for payment for advisory work Platini did for the then-Fifa president Blatter, 86, between 1998 and 2002.

Prosecutors said Platini, 66, demanded the payment “over eight years after the termination of his advisory activity”.

“With Blatter’s involvement, Fifa made a payment to Platini in said amount at the beginning of 2011,” prosecutors previously said.

Blatter and Platini are charged with fraud, embezzlement, “unfaithful business management” and forgery of documents.

The trial will start on 8 June.

Swiss prosecutors say Mr Blatter unlawfully arranged a transfer of two million Swiss francs ($2.19m; £1.6m) to Mr Platini in 2011.

Prosecutors say the payment “damaged Fifa’s assets and unlawfully enriched Platini”.

Mr Blatter and Mr Platini now face trial at a court in Bellinzona.

If found guilty of the charges, the pair could receive prison sentences of several years or fines.

The case was opened in September 2015 after Fifa, football’s world governing body was dogged by accusations of widespread corruption.

Fifa’s ethics committee launched an investigation which saw both men banned from the game and forced to leave their positions.

The affair ended Mr Blatter’s 17-year spell in charge of Fifa and Mr Platini’s campaign to succeed his former mentor.

A year later Mr Platini was forced to resign as president of Uefa, Europe’s football governing body, after losing an appeal against his ban.

Both Mr Blatter, 85, and Mr Platini, 66, have denied any wrongdoing.

The Swiss case centres on a request for payment for advisory work Mr Platini did for the then-Fifa president Mr Blatter between 1998 and 2002.

Prosecutors said Mr Platini demanded the payment “over eight years after the termination of his advisory activity”. “With Blatter’s involvement, Fifa made a payment to Platini in said amount at the beginning of 2011,” the prosecutors said.

They said Mr Blatter and Mr Plantini have both been accused of fraud, misappropriation, criminal mismanagement and forgery of a document.

On Tuesday Mr Platini’s Swiss lawyer, Dominic Nellen, told the BBC his client “categorically denies the untrue accusations”.

Mr Nellen said it was “clear that the investigation should have been discontinued long ago”.

“There are enough witness reports and documents in the case files that prove my client’s innocence,” the lawyer said. “I am 100% confident that we will be able to prove my client’s innocence in court.”

READ ALSO

• UCL: Chelsea battle to win away against Malmo

• UCL: Barca snatch win as Man Utd fight back to hold Atalanta

In his own statement, Mr Blatter said he looked forward to the trial and hoped “this story will come to an end”.

He said the payment to Mr Platini was based on a verbal agreement and had been delayed because Fifa was not able to pay the entire amount at the time.

Mr Blatter said the payment had been approved by “all responsible Fifa bodies” and that Mr Platini had paid tax on the amount “at his Swiss place of residence”.

Mr Blatter and Mr Platini were two of the most powerful figures in world football. Their roles at the top of the sport’s governing bodies gave them enormous influence in the game.

A successful football player for club and country, Mr Platini was widely tipped to succeed Mr Blatter following his resignation in 2015, after US prosecutors charged several top Fifa executives with corruption following a major inquiry by the FBI.

The charges came after a dramatic raid on a luxury hotel in Zurich and the arrest of seven Fifa executives.

When Mr Platini himself became embroiled in the investigation, he withdrew his candidacy for the Fifa presidency.

The FIFA ethics committee then suspended Mr Blatter and Mr Platini, before initially banning each from football for eight years. Those bans have since been reduced to six in Mr Blatter’s case and four in Mr Platini’s.

Last year, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rejected an appeal against Mr Platini’s ban, which it said “was justified”.