Platini and Blatter in trouble.
The Swiss prosecutor today asked for a sentence of one year and eight months of imprisonment for Joseph Blatter and Michel Platini, former presidents of FIFA and UEFA respectively, in the context of the trial for fraud.
The prosecutor of the case, Thomas Hildbrand, assured in the trial taking place at the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, Switzerland, that both Blatter and Platini “acted for purely selfish and economic reasons”.
According to the AFP news agency, the prosecutor did not ask for effective imprisonment for the former managers and did not ask for the five-year sentence that had been estimated at the beginning of the judicial process.
Former UEFA President Michel Platini speaks to the media as he leaves the Federal Court in Bellinzona, Switzerland. Photo: REUTERS / Arnd Wiegmann
Swiss prosecutors tried Blatter and Platini because they found an “unfair and unfair” payment from the former to the latter of two million Swiss francs.
The prosecutor was in court for more than four and a half hours to explain that this payment was not an “oral contract” for the alleged consultancy that Platini performed between 1998 and 2002 for Blatter’s FIFA.
Blatter assured days ago that this payment was treated as a “paycheck” and that both had agreed on the “word” that it would be paid when FIFA sorted its bills.
Sepp Blatter also had to face the media. Photo: REUTERS / Arnd Wiegmann
The trial will continue until June 22 and the verdict is expected to come out on July 8.
With information from Agencies
Source: Clarin