Switzerland’s Sepp Blatter, a former FIFA president, said this Saturday that “seven years of lies” were over after he, along with France’s Michel Platini, was acquitted of corruption charges.
“Hi friends, I’m back, still strong. Seven years of lies behind. Now the game is back in the right direction. Or, as Michel Platini said: you will hear about us again,” Blatter said in a social media post.
On July 8, Michel Platini and Joseph Blatter, former presidents of UEFA and FIFA respectively, were acquitted of corruption charges after six years of investigation and a two-week trial in Switzerland.
In an interview with the LCI TV channel, Platini assured that he had no desire to return to football, although he wants to find the “culprits” who were absent from the corruption trial.
Blatter and Platini were suspected of arranging an illegal payment by FIFA of two million Swiss francs (€1.8 million) to a then-high-ranking UEFA official.
Platini was to receive this amount in 2011, allegedly for services rendered to Blatter as an adviser between 1998 and 2002. Both justified the payment, so diluted in time, by the fact that FIFA’s finances at the time did not allow such a high reward to be paid. as agreed between Blatter and Platini.
The case has already been dealt with by sports bodies: Blatter, who stepped down as FIFA president in 2015, was suspended for six years from any football-related activity for “abuse of office”, “conflict of interest” and “mismanagement”. while Platini received a four-year sentence.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
