Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has denied allegations of corruption in football as he re-appeared in court alongside his former charge Michel Platini.
Blatter and Platini are back in Swiss court almost three years after they were acquitted in their first trial in July 2022 on charges of fraud, forgery and misappropriation of FIFA funds.
The Swiss prosecutor's office appealed these decisions.
In 2011, Blatter approved FIFA paying two million Swiss francs (currently £1.7 million) to French football legend Platini for his work as an adviser to the president 10 years earlier.
“When it comes to lies, deceit and falsification, that's not up to me,” Blatter, 88, told the three judges hearing the case in German. “That has never happened in my life.”
Blatter and Platini deny wrongdoing in a case that has dragged on for 10 years and ended the political careers of arguably the two most powerful figures in world football, who led FIFA and European football's governing body UEFA.
They have repeatedly appealed to five different courts – twice to FIFA, then to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and now to two Swiss criminal courts – claiming that they had a verbal “gentlemen's agreement” that they would resolve the issue of unpaid wages not specified in the contract in the future.
The prosecutor's November 2021 indictment said the payment “caused damage to FIFA's assets and improperly enriched Platini.”
“No corruption, no fraud, nothing at all,” Platini said after five hours in court on the first of four scheduled days.
The acquittal came nearly seven years after the investigation began and they were suspended. It also ended Platini's campaign as a potential candidate to succeed Blatter, his former political mentor, as FIFA president.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
