Paul Rouse: The uglier side of the beautiful game playing out in a Swiss courtroom
Hidden figures: Former UEFA president Michel Platini at Switzerland's Federal Criminal Court Pic: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images
Michel Platini was a great player.
He was great for France and great for Juventus – so great that he won the Ballon d'Or three times in succession, 1983-1985.
To put that in perspective, only Lionel Messi (7 times) and Cristiano Ronaldo (5) have won the Ballon d'Or more often than Platini.
To see him now accused in a courtroom in Switzerland, looking old and diminished, is something of a shock.
It is a tawdry tale of another international sports administrator tainted by cash, croniysim and allegations of corruption.
The court case relates to Platini’s time running soccer in Europe as the President of UEFA from January 2007 to December 2015.
To make appearances worse, his co-accused is Sepp Blatter, who was the most important man in world soccer for many years. He worked as General Secretary of FIFA from 1981, before becoming its President in 1998.
The court case specifically centres on a payment to Platini that has already cost both men their time in charge of soccer.
In 2015, it came to the light that back in 2011 Platini had received a payment of more than two million Swiss franc (€1.9 million) from FIFA.
After the payment became public knowledge, it was alleged that it was a fraudulent one. In the furore, Platini lost his position as the head of UEFA, while Blatter was removed as head of FIFA.
In the case of Blatter, it was just one of the allegations of corruption that was swirling around FIFA at the time, including those that were related to an investigation being undertaken by the FBI.
The buying and selling of favours, the exceptional amounts of money that were swilling around a trough where the noses of those who ran international football were wedged, the sheer scale of the venality is a matter of public record at this stage.
But the matter of the payment to Platini also became the subject of an investigation by the Swiss police; both UEFA and FIFA have their headquarters in Switzerland.
The investigation lasted for six years before Blatter and Platini were charged with what amounts to fraud and embezzlement. The trial, which opened on Wednesday, is slated to run for two weeks, with the judges giving their verdict on Friday, 8 July.
The two men have been accused of forging a document that sits at the heart of a fraud. On top of that, Sepp Blatter is also accused of misappropriation and criminal mismanagement, and Platini is accused of participating in those offences.
Basically, the claim stands or falls on the idea that Blatter had authorised the payment to Platini for his (Blatter’s) own benefit rather than for the good of FIFA.
And the story of the payment is rooted in the years between 1998 and 2002 when Platini was a paid adviser to Sepp Blatter.
All parties agree that a contract was signed in 1999 that saw Platini paid an annual salary of 300,000 Swiss francs (about €286,000) for his advice.
According to the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG), this amount was invoiced by Platini each year and was then paid in full by FIFA.
It is then said that almost a decade later – in 2011 – Platini then invoiced FIFA for the payment of a further two million Swiss franc (€1.9 million) as additional payment for the advice given between 1998 and 2002. This request was supported by Blatter and duly paid by FIFA.
Both Platini and Blatter say that – regardless of the written contract and the invoices from 1998 to 2002 – they had actually orally agreed an additional annual salary of one million francs and that FIFA were just unable to pay it at the time, so Platini deferred asking for it. Platini told the AFP News Agency (Agence France Press): “It is outstanding salary, owed by FIFA, under oral contract and paid under conditions of the most perfect legality. Nothing else! I acted, as in all my life and career, with the utmost honesty.”
But the prosecutors say that there is no legal basis for the payment and that it “unlawfully enriched” Platini.
There are various difficulties for Platini as he seeks to prove his innocence. The first is that five-year limit on such payments under Swiss law.
The second is that FIFA had no problems with money in those years and it appears that it could have easily managed the payment to Platini.
The third is that the timing of the payment does not exactly look ideal. It came as Blatter was trying to secure his re-election as President of FIFA. Platini had been considered as a serious rival to Blatter, but eventually did not contest the election. More than that, Blatter needed Platini to deliver him votes from European soccer federations if he was to be re-elected.
In 2015, FIFA suspended both men from any role in the administration of soccer for 6 years. The ban on Platini was reduced on appeal by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to 4 years. This left him free to return to sports administration in October 2019; it has not happened.
Before Blatter’s suspension was due to expire last year, FIFA banned him again, citing his offering or accepting gifts or other benefits. FIFA described his behaviour as “completely reprehensible”. This appears to have been said without irony.
In terms of the court case, Platini has claimed: “"I approach this hearing with serenity and confidence. I am convinced that justice will be fully and definitively done to me after so many years of wild accusations and slander. We will prove in court that I acted with the utmost honesty, that the payment of the remaining salary was due to me by FIFA and is perfectly legal.”
His lawyers are adamant he will be cleared: ““We are confident that the outcome of the trial will establish the perfect good faith of Mr Michel Platini in this affair, which has been fabricated to remove him from the presidency of FIFA.”
But if convicted, Platini – who is now 66 – could face up to 5 years in jail, as well as a significant fine and the obligation to pay the money back to FIFA.
As for Blatter, he too faces up to 5 years in prison. He is now 86, had significant heart surgery in 2020 and was said to be too unwell (he had chest pains although he did walk to and from the court) to give evidence in court on Wednesday.
Before the trial, Blatter had said that he viewed the case “with optimism – and hope that with it this story comes to an end and all facts are properly dealt with.” Indeed, his comment as the trial opened on Wednesday was: “I am very confident”.
This is further spice in the story. The man who took the job that Blatter had – and that Platini wanted – was the current president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino. He too is being investigated by the Swiss authorities.
Infantino has already disgraced himself with his relationship with Vladimir Putin. But the claim in this instance is that he somehow engineered the revelation of the story of the payment to Platini in order to clear the path for himself; this is dismissed by FIFA as “a conspiracy theory”. But Platini told the court: ““What FIFA did to the president of FIFA and me is scandalous. They made us out to be cheaters, fraudsters, money launderers. Just so that I wouldn’t become president.” What is not a matter of any theory is the current reality of the relationship between Blatter and Platini. The two men – once so close – have fallen out spectacularly. Blatter is staying for the duration of the trial at a five-star hotel on the shores of Lake Maggiore; he professed himself happy if Platini wished to stay there too. But Platini told ‘Le Monde’ newspaper: “There is no way I will stay in the same hotel."
Nonetheless, they are now bound together by their shared past and by the peril of the court case. The light that it shines on the world of elite sports administration is at once familiar and at the same time rooted in sums of money that are difficult to grasp. For example, in his early testimony on Thursday, Blatter told the court that Platini “told me: 'I'm worth a million'. I told him: 'So you'll be with me for a million'.”
Blatter’s conclusion was: “I just had this man on my team and he was worth his million.”
And he lamented: “I don't know why we are in a criminal hearing for an administrative procedure… I have already been punished for seven years. It has seemed like an eternity.””.
An eternity – and the prospect of another eternity on the way.
