FIFA: one year and eight months suspended prison sentence required against Platini and Blatter

The Federal Criminal Court of Bellinzona will issue its decision on July 8 in this case that ruined the careers of the two leaders, and in which they theoretically get up to five years in prison.

In refusing to claim a strong sentence against the 66-year-old Frenchman and the 86-year-old Swiss, prosecutor Thomas Hildbrand requested that their conviction be accompanied by a suspended sentence of two person on probation.

For over four and a half hours, he tried to sweep the thesis of a oral contract graduated between the two men for work as an adviser held by Platini between 1998 and 2002, when he joined forces only with Switzerland to bring him to the presidency of the International Federation of Football Association (FIFA).

Blatter and Platini certainly signed a written agreement in August 1999, providing 300,000 Swiss francs annually, fully paid for by FIFA. But they made sure to agree to pay 700,000 annual francs more when the organization’s finances allowed it.

Platini, who has temporarily served as president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), therefore presented an invoice for 2 million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros) at the beginning of 2011, which was signed by Sepp Blatter and presented to FIFA as the latter. salary balance.

Incredibly, sweep Thomas Hildbrand: even though the body transferred a million Swiss francs to Platini in 1999, it still has more than 21 million francs in cashand its reserves reached 327 million in 2002.

Consent to such amount without a written record, without witnesses and never allocating it to the accounts is, moreover, contrary to commercial use as usual in FIFA, he hammered.

Beginning on Wednesday, the trial will continue until June 22, with appeals from FIFA – civil parties – then from the defense.