Blatter gestures during a press conference in Zurich on March 8,
2018.Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and ex-UEFA chief
Michel Platini are now being investigated for “fraud” and
“breach of trust” in Switzerland, a source with access to the probe
said on Friday.
The former power brokers of world football were originally part
of a legal procedure opened in 2015 over a 2011 payment
to Platini of two million Swiss francs ($2.2
million).
The Swiss prosecutors have decided to change the focus of their
investigation, the same source s aid.
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Former Juventus and France midfielder Platini received
the payment from FIFA for advisory work completed in 2002.
Prosecutors are investigating on suspicion of “complicity in
unfair management, embezzlement and forgery”.
The Swiss Public Ministry of the Confederation (MPC) in Bern has
the power to use further legal manoeuvres to call for the sum to be
paid.
Platini’s entourage told AFP on Friday the Swiss prosecutors
were “maintaining this five-year-old case artificially by widening
the accusations”.
FIFA deemed the payment authorised by Blatter a “disloyal
payment” and suspended Blatter and Platini from all
football-related activities, which prevented the former UEFA chief
from running for another term as president in 2016.
In a statement to AFP on Friday, Blatter said: “I have done
nothing wrong in making back payments based on a joint
agreement.”
Blatter was removed from office in 2015 after 17 years at the
head of FIFA.
Football’s world governing body has been rocked by a number of
scandals over the last decade.
In October, former FIFA number two Jerome Valcke was handed a
suspended 120-day sentence and fined 1.65 million euros ($1.92
million) by a Swiss court over the allocation of World Cup TV
rights.
It was the first judgement handed down in Switzerland, the seat
of most international sports organisations, in the 20 or so
proceedings opened in the last five years involving FIFA.
Two former Latin American football leaders have been jailed in
the United States over their role in corruption.
AFP
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