French football legend Michel Platini says his honour has been restored after acquittal

MUTTENZ, Switzerland – French football great Michel Platini said on March 25 that he was “very happy” and felt that his honour had been restored after a Swiss court acquitted him of fraud.

The 69-year-old and former Fifa president Sepp Blatter, 89, were both cleared of corruption charges, 2½ years after they were first acquitted of the offences.

“The persecution of Fifa and some Swiss federal prosecutors for 10 years is now over,” Platini said. “It is now totally over. And for me, today, my honour has returned and I am very happy.”

Platini, a former captain and manager of the French national team, said he had received 10,000 messages of support and would celebrate the decision by going to a restaurant.

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 which related to a 2 million Swiss franc (S$3.05 million) payment Blatter authorised for Platini in 2011.

The court said there were doubts about the prosecution’s allegation the payment for Platini, a former captain and coach of the French national team, was fraudulent.

The 2022 indictment had accused Blatter and Platini of deceiving Fifa staff in 2010 and 2011 about an obligation for world football’s ruling body to pay Platini.

“They falsely claimed that Fifa owed Platini, or that Platini was entitled to, the sum of 2 million Swiss francs for advisory work. This deception was achieved through repeated untruthful claims made by both accused parties,” the indictment said.

But the court cleared the pair, saying their account of an oral agreement for