GENEVA — As his 89th birthday approaches, former FIFA president Sepp Blatter is set to return to court on Monday for a retrial involving alleged financial misconduct, a legal battle that has stretched over almost a decade. Blatter, along with French soccer icon Michel Platini, was previously acquitted in July 2022 on various charges such as fraud, forgery, misappropriation of funds, and mismanagement. These charges were connected to a controversial payment of 2 million Swiss francs (approximately $2.21 million) made by FIFA to Platini.
The acquittal, announced nearly seven years after the investigation first came to light, effectively removed both Blatter and Platini from their influential roles as leaders of FIFA and UEFA. It also prematurely ended Platini’s aspirations to follow in the footsteps of his one-time mentor Blatter for the FIFA presidency. In October 2022, the Swiss attorney general’s office challenged the initial verdicts, prompting a new trial scheduled to begin on Monday in Muttenz near Basel. A decision from three judges is expected by March 25.
Throughout the proceedings, Blatter and Platini have adamantly denied any wrongdoing. They assert that there was an informal agreement to remunerate Platini for advisory work performed during Blatter’s first term as FIFA president from 1998 to 2002. Federal prosecutors are seeking 20-month suspended sentences to be served over a period of two years.
Central to the dispute is Blatter’s authorization in 2011—when he was serving as FIFA president—of a payment to Platini, who was a FIFA vice president at the time and head of UEFA. The payment’s details became public in 2015, following a widespread corruption scandal within FIFA. This scandal resulted in arrests and the seizure of financial records, setting off a seismic shift in FIFA’s leadership and ethics oversight. Blatter was forced to step down, and Platini was sidelined from both UEFA and his planned candidacy for FIFA president, a role ultimately won by Gianni Infantino.
The retrial is scheduled to span four days, with reserved sessions slated for March 11-12, leaving Monday, the day of Blatter’s 89th birthday, free. The hearing will take place in a cantonal courthouse in Muttenz, as opposed to the federal criminal court in Bellinzona, where their first trial was held over 11 days in June 2022. This change in venue follows Platini’s successful appeal for new judges in the case.
Platini, who backed Blatter’s 1998 election in Paris and served as an advisor, was paid an annual salary of 300,000 Swiss francs (around $332,000) until Blatter’s re-election in 2002. Both claim there was an informal agreement to eventually pay Platini an additional 1 million Swiss francs annually once FIFA was financially able. Prosecutors stated that Platini began requesting the unpaid amount in early 2010, motivated by learning about “golden parachute” severance packages given to departing FIFA staffers. In January 2011, Platini invoiced FIFA for 2 million Swiss francs and received payment on February 1, soon after FIFA’s executive committee—including Platini—selected Russia and Qatar as the World Cup hosts for 2018 and 2022, respectively.
FIFA filing a criminal complaint in November 2014 led to Swiss investigations into these hosting decisions. Prosecutors argue that the payment harmed FIFA’s financial standing and unjustly benefited Platini. In response, Platini has claimed to have declared the income and fulfilled tax obligations while FIFA has pursued the return of the funds plus additional costs and interest.
The case has ricocheted through various jurisdictions before Blatter and Platini achieved a favorable outcome at Bellinzona’s federal criminal court. However, their appeals were previously unsuccessful across multiple platforms, including FIFA’s ethics and appeals committees, the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, and the Swiss Federal Tribunal. Platini’s final attempt, an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, was dismissed in March 2020.
