Blatter, Platini cleared of corruption
Former Fifa president Sepp Blatter and celebrated French footballer Michel Platini have been cleared of corruption charges relating to allegations of fraud at the global footballing body. An appeals court in Muttenz, near Basel in Switzerland, yesterday cleared the two of impropriety over a payment of 2m Swiss francs (£1.6m) Blatter made to Platini in […]
Former Fifa president Sepp Blatter and celebrated French footballer Michel Platini have been cleared of corruption charges relating to allegations of fraud at the global footballing body.
An appeals court in Muttenz, near Basel in Switzerland, yesterday cleared the two of impropriety over a payment of 2m Swiss francs (£1.6m) Blatter made to Platini in 2011. Both men have consistently denied wrongdoing.
The two were first acquitted of fraud offences in 2022, but the verdict was appealed by Swiss federal prosecutors.
The long-running case stems from 2015, when Fifa became mired in allegations of fraud and corruption, culminating in a dramatic raid in Zurich resulting from a separate US probe.
It forced Blatter to resign and ended Platini’s hopes of succeeding him as the head of Fifa.