Ex-FIFA President Blatter and UEFA's Platini Face Renewed Fraud Trial Over $2 Million Payment

Blatter, 88, and Platini, 69, maintain their innocence, claiming the payment was for consulting services under a verbal agreement from the late 1990s.

Joseph Blatter and Michel Platini are accused of fraud, forgery, and embezzlement over a $2 million payment authorized in 2011 from FIFA funds.
Both defendants argue the payment was legitimate compensation for consulting work agreed upon verbally in the late 1990s but paid years later due to FIFA's financial constraints at the time.
The pair were acquitted in 2022, with the court citing insufficient evidence of wrongdoing, but prosecutors appealed the decision, and a new ruling is expected on March 25, 2025.
The trial has been relocated to Muttenz, Switzerland, due to concerns about judicial impartiality in the original jurisdiction.
The FIFA ethics committee previously banned both Blatter and Platini, derailing Platini's ambitions to succeed Blatter as FIFA president.