Ginebra (Suiza), 4 Mar. (DPA/EP) –
The former president of FIFA Joseph Blatter was shown on Monday “very confident” in a new acquittal in the new trial held in Switzerland for an alleged illegal payment to the former UEFA president Michel Platini.
The two leaders were acquitted of fraud in 2022 for a payment of two million Swiss francs -2,13 million euros- from Blatter to Platini, which according to them agreed in the 1990s for a consulting work but that was not paid until 2011.
The discovery of the payment ended its careers in the respective governing organizations of world and European football in 2015, since it was considered a bribe. Now they face a criminal trial after the Swiss prosecutors appealed the original verdict and said that the payment was illegal. A verdict is expected on March 25.
Blatter, 88, declared Monday before the Court. “When people speak of falsification and lies and fraud, that is not me, I have not been in my whole life,” he said before the judge.
While Blatter spoke briefly with journalists upon arrival to express his trust, Platini, 69, entered the Muttenz court without speaking. Yes did Platini’s lawyer. “My client denies the accusations in its entirety,” he said.
The former French soccer player Platini – who was in charge of UEFA from 2007 to 2015 – has systematically stated that FIFA lacked money to pay him as agreed in the late nineties and that when FIFA’s finances seemed more flattering, he claimed his payment again. Judicial procedures have been carried out in Switzerland, where FIFA is headquarters.
“A verbal contract remains a verbal contract,” Blatter told DPA before hearing. “It was not a rope payment, it was resolved according to the principles that exist in FIFA. If the result is negative, I will have to gather new energies and challenge it,” he concluded.