The court announced on Tuesday that former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and ex-UEFA President Michel Platini will face Swiss corruption charges in June for a $2 million (£1.4 million) payment made by international football’s governing organization to Platini.
Both Blatter and Platini have previously denied any misconduct in connection with the incident, which Swiss authorities accused them for in November.
Platini’s formal request to FIFA in January 2011 for a backdated supplementary salary for his work as a presidential adviser during Blatter’s first term, from 1998 to 2002, was denied.
FIFA was given permission by Blatter to make the payment within weeks. Platini’s influence among the European vote was a key factor in his re-election campaign against Qatar’s Mohamed bin Hammam at the time.
Prosecutors claim Blatter fraudulently arranged Platini’s payment for consultancy services in 2011. Platini captained France to victory in the 1984 European Championship. The payment, according to Blatter and Platini, was for backdated salaries.
Both are suspected of fraud and other offenses as part of FIFA’s greatest corruption scandal to date.
The case, which began in September 2015, resulted in Blatter’s resignation from FIFA ahead of schedule, as well as the demise of then-UEFA President Michel Platini’s bid to succeed his old mentor.
Blatter resigned in 2015 after 17 years as FIFA president, followed by Platini in 2016. For ethics infractions, both were given six-year bans.
The Swiss Federal Criminal Court’s trial is set to begin on June 8 and last until June 22, according to the court’s website.
Blatter’s lawyer’s office declined to comment. ‘I look forward to the trial before the Federal Criminal Court with optimism,’ Blatter stated at the time of his indictment, ‘and I trust that this saga will come to a close and that all the facts will be dealt with fairly.’
Platini’s Swiss lawyer could not be reached for comment right away. He has previously stated that his client is innocent and that the matter should have been dropped years ago.
Blatter and Platini are accused of illegally obtaining a payment of 2 million Swiss francs (£16.5 million) and social security contributions worth roughly 229,000 francs for Platini, according to the court.
‘Among other things, Michel Francois Platini had submitted to FIFA in 2011 a presumably false invoice for a (supposedly) still existing claim for his consulting efforts for FIFA from 1998 to 2002,’ according to the report.