Overview

• Joseph Blatter and Michel Platini were acquitted by the Muttenz Appeals Court on March 25, 2025, concluding the legal case over a controversial $2 million FIFA payment.
• The court upheld the 2022 acquittal by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court, citing insufficient evidence to support the prosecution's fraud and embezzlement charges.
• Swiss prosecutors had sought 20-month suspended prison sentences for both men during the appeal trial but failed to overturn the earlier ruling.
• The payment, authorized by Blatter in 2011, was described by both defendants as a delayed consultancy fee based on a verbal agreement from a decade earlier.
• This case is part of broader scrutiny of FIFA's governance under Blatter's tenure, though the courts reaffirmed the principle of 'in dubio pro reo'—in doubt, for the accused.