Summary

• Blatter and Platini face appeal from Swiss Federal Prosecutors
• Pair were cleared of fraud at 2022 hearing
• Blatter confident his acquittal will be upheld
• Platini’s lawyer says client is confident of being cleared again

Sepp Blatter, the former head of soccer’s global governing body FIFA, is looking forward to clearing his name at a new court hearing into allegations he made corrupt payments to French footballing great Michel Platini.

Blatter, who was president of FIFA from 1998 to 2015, told Reuters on Tuesday he was innocent and the victim of a witch hunt ahead of the appeals hearing which starts on Monday.

The 88-year-old is due to appear in court in Switzerland alongside former France captain and manager Platini, once seen as his eventual successor at the top of world football.

Both were cleared in 2022 at a lower Swiss court following a seven-year investigation into a payment of 2 million Swiss francs ($2.24 million), a decision contested by Swiss prosecutors.

“The Federal Criminal Court in 2022 said the contract between Platini and me was correct, and I expect the new court will confirm this first decision,” Blatter told Reuters, adding the upcoming appeal was “absolute nonsense”.

“It’s a witch hunt against me, it feels like a vendetta,” Blatter added. “I am completely confident I will be cleared, I am an honest man.”

The case goes back to a payment FIFA made to Platini when he was boss of European football’s governing body UEFA in 2011, with Blatter’s approval, for work done 10 years earlier.

In the 2022 case, a judge said the pair’s account of a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ for FIFA to pay Platini 2 million Swiss francs for consulting work between 1998 and 2002 was credible, and that serious doubts existed about the prosecution’s allegation that it was a fraudulent payment.

“The payment was made based on a contract and the first court agreed,” said Blatter. “It was correctly implemented and there was no bribery in any way.”

Platini, a three-times European footballer of the year, also denies the fraud charges “100%” said his lawyer Dominic Nellen.

The 69-year-old Frenchman, who after hanging up his boots helped organise the 1998 World Cup in his homeland, was confident he would be cleared again, Nellen said.

“My client was clearly acquitted by the court of first instance. It is incomprehensible the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has appealed the case,” Nellen told Reuters.

As a result of the investigation, Blatter and Platini both lost their jobs and were banned from the sport for several years.

In the upcoming Swiss hearing, federal prosecutors are seeking sentences of 20 months against both Blatter and Platini, suspended for two years.

The proceedings, due to take place at the Extraordinary Appeals Chamber of the Swiss Criminal Court, will start in Muttenz, near Basel on Monday, with a verdict expected on March 25.

Blatter said he was looking forward to putting the case behind him, adding he was happy following international matches on television and local games in his home canton of Valais.

“I truly hope this ends the matter,” Blatter said. “I’ll be happy when everything is over and I can live in peace.”

-Reuters

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Wadie Jary, the former president of the Tunisian Football Federation (FTF), has been sentenced to four years in prison on corruption charges.

A spokesperson for the country’s sports ministry told the AFP news agency that the conviction related to an “unlawful contract between the FTF and a technical director” during Jary’s time in office.

The 52-year-old’s lawyers say he will appeal against the verdict.

Jary was first elected head of the FTF in 2012 and faced multiple allegations of impropriety during his reign, including match-fixing, financial misconduct and money laundering, all of which he denied.

Local media also reported on disputes between Jary and the sports ministry, while in January 2021 he received a four-year ban from the Tunisian National Olympic Committee after it claimed he had “breached national and international Olympic ethics codes”.

Despite that ban, Jary was elected to the Confederation of African Football’s (Caf) executive committee just two months later.

He remained on the the committee while awaiting trial, with Caf general secretary Veron Mosengo-Omba telling the BBC last year that the organisation was “not protecting crooks” and would make a decision on Jary once a verdict was delivered by the Tunisian legal system.

After the charges against him emerged, Jary was taken into custody in October 2023.

-BBC

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The highest court in global sport dismissed an appeal by former Spanish soccer head Luis Rubiales on Friday after he was banned from any football-related activity for kissing player Jenni Hermoso without her consent at the 2023 women’s World Cup final.

World soccer governing body FIFA had banned Rubiales in October 2023 for three years and an appeals committee had also dismissed his appeal in January last year. The 47-year-old had the option to appeal the decision before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

However, a CAS panel determined that his behaviour at the presentation ceremony “constituted multiple and serious violations of the FIFA Disciplinary Code”, adding that it saw no reason to consider the sanction to be disproportionate.

“The appeal sought to set the contested decision aside, or in the alternative to set it partially aside and amend the sanction, or in the further alternative, apply any other disciplinary measures,” CAS said in a statement.

“The appeal by Mr Rubiales is dismissed and the contested decision is maintained.”

On Thursday, Spain’s High Court found Rubiales guilty of sexual assault for kissing Hermoso without her consent and fined him more than 10,000 euros ($10,454).

The ruling also banned Rubiales, the former president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), from going within a 200-metre radius of Hermoso.

Reuters

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