Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and France great Michel Platini were both cleared of corruption charges by a Swiss court on Tuesday, 2½ years after they were first acquitted of the offences.
The pair, once among the most powerful figures in global football, were cleared of fraud at the Extraordinary Appeals Chamber of the Swiss Criminal Court in the town of Muttenz, near Basel.
The hearing came about after Swiss federal prosecutors appealed against their 2022 acquittal at a lower court. Both men had denied the charge.
“After two acquittals, even the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland must realise that these criminal proceedings have definitively failed. Michel Platini must finally be left in peace in criminal matters,” Platini’s lawyer Dominic Nellen said in a statement.
The case related to a 2 million Swiss franc ($2.26 million) payment Blatter authorized for Platini, a former captain and manager of the French national team, in 2011.
