Football: Blatter & Platini back in court on fraud charges
By Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw
Sepp Blatter, the former President of FIFA and Michel Platini, the former President of UEFA and former Vice President of FIFA, have appeared, on 3 March 2025, in a Special Federal Criminal Appeal Court in Mutenz, in the Canton of Basel, Switzerland, facing the same charges of fraud, dishonest management and forgery of documents, of which they were acquitted two and a half years ago by the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, in the Canton of Ticino, Switzerland.
The Attorney General of Switzerland has appealed against these acquittals, hence the current criminal proceedings.
Both Blatter and Platini deny all these charges, and Blatter who will be 89 years old in a week’s time, because of his health, will only attend the trial for a few days. Whilst Platini will attend the trial in full.
It is alleged that Blatter and Platini “falsely claimed that FIFA owed Platini, or that Platini was entitled to, the sum of CHF2 million for advisory work. This deception was achieved through repeated untruthful claims made by both accused parties.”
It is further alleged that “Blatter and Platini deceived FIFA staff in 2010 and 2011 about an obligation for world soccer’s ruling body to pay the Frenchman, who was president of the game’s European governing body UEFA at the time.”
However, in the earlier criminal proceedings, the Judge accepted that their claim of a “gentlemen’s agreement” for the payment was credible and also considered that there were serious doubts about the prosecution’s allegation that it was fraudulent.
In 2015, Blatter and Platini were suspended for eight years from football by FIFA for breaches of the FIFA Code of Ethics, However, these suspensions were later reduced by the FIFA Appeal Committee to six years, taking into account “their services to FIFA, UEFA and football in general over the years.”
In the latest criminal proceedings, the Swiss Federal Prosecutor is seeking a prison sentence of 20 months, suspended for two years, against Blatter and Platini.
It seems rather strange, from a legal point of view, that these proceedings have been revived after such a long period of time and having regard to the ‘double jeopardy’ rule!
Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw may be contacted by e-mail at ‘
