Blatter faces final hearing over payment to former France captain Platini

Sepp Blatter, the former head of world football’s governing organisation Fifa, was scheduled to meet prosecutors in Zurich on Monday as part of an inquiry into a €1.8million payment to the former France captain Michel Platini.

Sepp Blatter, as president of Fifa, was world football's most influential administrator for nearly two decades. FABRICE COFFRINI AFP/Archives

The session is the final step before judges decide whether the men should face a criminal trial on corruption charges including breach of trust and fraud.

Since the inquiry began in 2015, Blatter, 85, and 66-year-old Platini have maintained the cash was paid for Platini’s work as a technical advisor to Blatter between 1998 and 2002 before he became the president of European football’s ruling body Uefa.

However, the money was only paid in 2011.

The men say the agreement between them dated back to the spring of 1998 just before Blatter became Fifa boss.

But Fifa, headed by Gianni Infantino since 2016, says there should have been a written account of the arrangement and wants Platini to repay the amount.

Probe

A subsequent Fifa inquiry into the payment by Fifa’s ethics committee said there was not sufficient evidence to establish the payment was a bribe.

But the committee said both men demonstrated an abusive execution of their positions.

Platini went before the judges in March. They will decide whether the Swiss federal prosecutor's office will file an indictment against him and Blatter who underwent a heart operation last year.

That would pave the way for a trial before the Swiss Federal Criminal Court for both men.

Ex-FIFA chief #SeppBlatter arrived in Zurich on Monday for final hearings with a Swiss prosecutor in a fraud probe surrounding a 2011 payment to #MichelPlatini https://t.co/WQbkUDmr3x

— NDTV Sports (@Sports_NDTV) August 9, 2021

Hearings

"The final hearings do not allow conclusions to be drawn as to the outcome of the criminal proceedings," said the public prosecutor's office.

Last month, a Swiss court rejected Fifa’s attempt to revive a criminal inquiry into a 2005 deal between Fifa and the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) to broadcast the World Cup.

Blatter was accused of selling TV rights to the CFU for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups for $600,000. The figure was deemed well below the market value at the time.

The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) dropped the investigation last year but Fifa appealed against the decision..

The Federal Criminal Court rejected Fifa’s request. It said the OAG had acted properly.