Joseph Blatter and Michel Platini acquitted of corruption charges by a Swiss court

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and French soccer legend Michel Platini were acquitted on Friday of corruption charges by a Swiss court.

Blatter, who led FIFA for 17 years, was acquitted of fraud by the Federal Criminal Court in the southern city of Bellinzona.

Platini, a former captain and coach of the France national team, was also acquitted of fraud.

This case put an end in 2015 to the ambitions of the former French soccer player to access the head of world soccer.

The Bellinzona federal criminal court did not follow the requirements of the prosecution, which had requested a suspended prison term of one year and eight months in mid-June, while the two defendants pleaded not guilty.

For two weeks, the 67-year-old Frenchman and the 86-year-old Swiss appeared for "having illegally obtained, to the detriment of FIFA, a payment of 2 million Swiss francs" (1.8 million euros / 2 million dollars). “in favor of Michel Platini”.

Platini, surrounded by journalists, at the exit of the Bellinzona court.

FABRICE COFFRINI (AFP)

Defense and prosecution coincided on one point: the triple Golden Ball advised Sepp Blatter between 1998 and 2002, during the latter's first term at the head of FIFA, and in 1999 both men signed a contract that stipulated an annual remuneration of 300,000 Swiss francs, fully paid by FIFA.

But in January 2011, the former Juventus midfielder - who had by then become president of UEFA (2007-2015) - asserted the existence of "a debt of 2 million Swiss francs", described as a "false invoice" by the accusation.

Both men insist for their part that they had agreed from the beginning to an annual salary of one million Swiss francs through an oral and unwitnessed “gentleman's agreement”, without FIFA's finances allowing immediate payment to Platini.

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