Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini scored another victory in court on Tuesday, securing a 2-0 lead in their legal battle against Swiss federal prosecutors.
The former FIFA president and former UEFA president were acquitted for the second time on charges of fraud, forgery, mismanagement, and the misappropriation of over $2 million in FIFA funds in 2011.
Blatter, now 89, showed little reaction as the verdict was delivered by three cantonal judges acting as a federal criminal appeals court, according to Reuters.
Sitting in front of Platini, he supposedly alternated between tapping his fingers and covering his mouth with his left hand.
Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini scored another victory in court on Tuesday, securing a 2-0 lead in their legal battle against Swiss federal prosecutors
REUTERS
Platini, sitting nearby, folded his arms or rubbed his hands while a translator beside him relayed the court's decision in German, which he followed in French.
The Swiss attorney general’s office had appealed the initial acquittal in July 2022, requesting 20 months' sentence, suspended for two years.
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Blatter and Platini have long maintained their innocence in the decade-long case, which centered on their claim of a verbal agreement to settle the disputed payment.
In February 2011, Blatter authorised FIFA to pay Platini 2 million Swiss francs (around $2.21 million) for additional salary as a presidential advisor from 1998 to 2002.
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BREAKING: Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and former UEFA president Michel Platini have been acquitted for a second time of financial wrongdoing with FIFA money. pic.twitter.com/yFQFgAGCPE
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) March 25, 2025
This latest legal win for Blatter and Platini, now 69, came exactly 9-and-a-half years after the Swiss federal investigation was revealed.
The investigation began in September 2015, when police arrived at FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich to interrogate both men after an executive committee meeting, just as Platini was a strong contender to succeed his former mentor in the upcoming FIFA presidential election.
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Though federal court rulings have twice cleared their names, both men have suffered.
Blatter will likely be remembered as being head of FIFA at a time when the organisation was hit by scandal.
Sepp Blatter (pictured) and Michel Platini always maintained their innocence
REUTERS
He will, however, take some solace knowing he's now been cleared twice.
As for Platini, one of the sport’s greatest players, he never realised his dream of being head of FIFA - which was something he previously thought would be his 'destiny' given his work at UEFA.
