Africa-Press – Angola. Former FIFA and UEFA presidents Joseph Blatter and Michel Platini, respectively, began their trial on Wednesday in a court in Bellinzona, Switzerland, on suspicion of fraud, mismanagement, breach of trust and forgery of documents, it reported. the sports newspaper Record, in the online edition.
The trial of Blatter, who led FIFA between 1998 and 2015, now 86, and Platini, president of UEFA, between 2007 and 2016, and a star in the 1980s of the French national team and 66-year-old Juventus, is expected to until the 22nd of June, with the sentence expected until the 8th of July.
Blatter and Platini are suspected of having arranged the illicit payment of two million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros) by FIFA to the then top UEFA official.
Platini will have received the amount in 2011, allegedly, for the services provided as an advisor to Blatter between 1998 and 2002. Both justified the payment so diluted in time with the fact that FIFA’s finances, at the time, did not allow remuneration as high as those agreed between Blatter and Platini.
The case has already been tried in the sporting bodies, with Blatter, who resigned from the FIFA presidency in 2015, having been suspended for six years from any activity related to football, for “abuse of position”, “conflict of interests” and “mismanagement”. , and Platini received a four-year punishment.
Under Swiss law, simple fraud carries a penalty of up to five years in prison or a pecuniary punishment.
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