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Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini have been acquitted by a Swiss criminal court of defrauding world football’s governing body FIFA.
Swiss prosecutor Thomas Hildebrand has asked for a 20-month suspended sentence for each at the conclusion of their trial at the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona.
In a statement, former French football legend and former UEFA president Platini said: “In accordance with the decision of the Bellinzona court judge, this morning I want to express my happiness for all my loved ones, seven Finally justice after the point. Years of lies and manipulation.
“In this trial, the truth came out.
“I keep saying: My fight is a fight against injustice. I won my first match. In this case, there are culprits who didn’t show up in this trial. Let them count on me and we’ll meet again Yes. Because I will not give up, I will pursue the truth all the way.”
The case focuses on the $2m (£1.6m) paid by FIFA to Platini, which was approved by former FIFA president Blatter in 2011, for work carried out a decade earlier.
Blatter announced his plans to resign early as FIFA president in June 2015 as a consequence of a US corruption probe that ended his 17-year rule.
A separate but cooperative case by Swiss prosecutors led to an investigation into the Platini payment.
The fallout ended Platini’s campaign to succeed his former mentor and saw him removed as president of European football’s governing body UEFA.
Platini added: “Believe me, it’s very difficult to go from world football legend to demon, especially when it comes to you in a totally unfair way.”
Blatter and Platini have long denied wrongdoing and claim they made a verbal agreement with Platini in 1998 to receive additional wages that FIFA could not pay at the time. Platini signed a contract in August 1999 paying 300,000 Swiss francs (£250,000) a year.
That defence first failed in the judges of FIFA’s ethics committee, which banned them from football, and later appealed separately at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
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