Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini Charged With Fraud

• Former FIFA president, Sepp Blatter has been charged with fraud
• He was charged alongside his UEFA counterpart Michel Platini

Ekohotblog reports that federal prosecutors in Switzerland have charged former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and former UEFA president Michel Platini, with fraud and other crimes after a six-year investigation into an allegedly illegal $2 million payment made to Platini.

The 85-year-old Blatter and 65-year-old Platini now face a trial within months at a federal criminal court in Bellinzona, Switzerland.

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“This payment damaged FIFA’s assets and unlawfully enriched Platini,” Swiss federal prosecutors said in a statement.

The case from September 2015 ousted Blatter ahead of schedule as FIFA president and ended then-UEFA president Platini’s campaign to succeed his former mentor.

Swiss cases often take years to reach a conclusion.

In January 2011, Platini wrote to FIFA asking to be paid backdated additional salary for working as a presidential adviser in Blatter’s first term from 1998 to 2002.

Blatter consented and authorized FIFA to make the payment within weeks.

He and Platini have long denied wrongdoing and said they had verbally agreed for the money to be paid more than 20 years ago.

Blatter has been charged with fraud, mismanagement, misappropriation of FIFA funds and forgery of a document.

Platini has been charged with fraud, misappropriation, forgery and as an accomplice to Blatter’s alleged mismanagement.

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