Overview

• Switzerland’s federal prosecutor withdrew its appeal on August 28, accepting prior rulings and formally closing the criminal proceedings against Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter.
• The case centered on a 2 million Swiss franc payment made in 2011, with both sides agreeing Platini had consulted for Blatter from 1998 to 2002 under a written contract for 300,000 francs per year.
• Platini and Blatter maintained the payment reflected a verbal agreement for higher deferred compensation, while prosecutors had argued it was unjustified.
• Courts acquitted the pair in 2022 and again after a retrial in March 2025, rejecting prosecutors’ repeated requests for conditional suspended sentences.
• Platini said the affair was used to stop his rise to FIFA president and stated he is now too old to seek new responsibilities, as the 2015 scandal cleared the way for Gianni Infantino at FIFA and Aleksander Ceferin at UEFA.