The trial of Platini and Balatar again for fraud and forgery

Former FIFA President FIFA, Swiss Joseph Blatter, and former UEFA president Michelle Platini, returns to the court, on Monday, to re -try them in the case of financial violations that lasted for nearly 10 years.

Three federal judges issued a ruling of Blatter’s innocence and French football legend Michel Platini, in July 2022, from accusations that include fraud, forgery, embezzlement of money and mismanagement, related to the payment of “FIFA” 2 million Swiss francs of Platini, who was heading the European Football Association “UEFA” at the time.

The innocence came about 7 years after the investigation was revealed for the first time, and the duo removed their positions, and the Platini campaign to succeed the Supreme Blatter as Blatter as President of “FIFA”.

The Swiss Prosecutor’s Office submitted an appeal against those initial rulings in October 2022, and a new trial begins tomorrow, Monday, in the Swiss town of Motations, near the city of Basel.

Three judges are scheduled to be issued in this case on March 25.

Blatter and Platini continuously denied any violations, and claimed that they had a verbal agreement to pay money in exchange for an uneducated work that was represented in Balater consultations during his first term from 1998 to 2002.

Federal prosecutors requested that he be sentenced to 20 months in prison for two years.

Blatter was the president of “FIFA” in 2011 when he allowed Platini’s vice -president of the Football Association at the same time, and at the same time was the European Union for the game, in preparation for his assumption of “FIFA” presidency.

4 years later, the details of the batch that took place in February 2011 appeared in the wake of the corruption crisis that struck FIFA in May 2015, as Federal investigators in the United States revealed a comprehensive investigation into charges of international football officials, and the Swiss authorities conducted a campaign in the early morning in hotels in the Swiss city of Zurich before the confiscation of financial and commercial records of FIFA.

This issue caused the end of Platini’s dreams headed by “FIFA” to succeed Balater, and the Independent Ethics Committee arrested the two men from working, before their practice was banned any football activity at a later time.

Blatter was isolated from his post before the end of his term, and it was decided to remove Platini from UEFA, and prevent him from running for the FIFA presidency in the elections held in February 2016, which was won by Swiss Gianni Infantino, who was the CEO of Platini in light of his assumption of the position of Secretary -General of UEFA.

After they became the most influential men in the world of football, Blatter and Platini return to the court at the age of 88 and 69 years, as well as they are far from any activity related to sports since 2015.

The case is scheduled to continue for a period of four days until next Thursday, with reserve days available on March 11 and 12 (March), while Blatter will be allowed to celebrate his 89th birthday on the tenth of the same month.

The trial is taking place in a court of Motations, one of the outskirts of Basel, instead of the Federal Criminal Court in Beelsona, where the first trial was held for 11 days in June 2022, and because Platini won a federal ruling last year ordering the refusal of the appeal judges in Beelsona.

Platini had participated in a Blatter’s election campaign for the “FIFA” presidency in the French capital, Paris in 1998, then worked as a consultant, and his annual salary was 300,000 Swiss francs (332 thousand US dollars now) until Blatter’s re -election in 2002.

There are accusations that a “friendly agreement” was later obtained on the remaining balance of one million Swiss francs every year, FIFA could not have paid it at that time.

The indictment published by the Federal Prosecutors stated that Platini, who was elected president of “UEFA” in 2007, began to request his additional money in early 2010.

Platini witnessed in other listening sessions that he was driven to request this when he learned of the “golden umbrella” payments that FIFA presented to other employees who left their positions.

Platini was sent to “FIFA” an bill for 2 million Swiss francs in January 2011, and it was paid on February 1, and that was several weeks after his vote and other members of the FIFA Executive Committee in favor of supporting the World Cup in 2018 and 2022 for Russia and Qatar, respectively.

“This payment has harmed FIFA and Platini archaeologists illegally,” said representatives of the Federal Prosecutor, who published the initial indictment in November 2021.

Platini said that he had announced income and taxes on it, and FIFA filed a civil lawsuit to recover money and 229 thousand Swiss francs (253 thousand dollars) of social fees, in addition to the interest.

The case passed through many sports and civil courts before Blatter and Platini finally won the Federal Criminal Court in Pelinsonna.

On the other hand, Blatter and Platini lost their invitation before the FIFA Ethics Committee, then its Appeals Committee in Zurich, and in separate appeals before the Sports Arbitration Court in the Swiss city of Lausanne.

Platini also submitted an appeal before the Swiss Federal Court in Lausanne against “FIFA”, then before the European Court of Human Rights in the French city of Strasbourg, and sentenced to the appeal known as Platini against Switzerland in March 2020 that he was clearly unacceptable, and is clearly unfounded.