Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini were acquitted on charges of defrauding FIFA by a Swiss criminal court on Friday, a rare positive outcome for the pair who were among soccer’s most powerful figures before being embroiled in corruption investigations.
The case was centered around a $2 million payment from FIFA to Platini with Blatter’s approval in 2011, for work done a decade earlier. The verdict followed an 11-day trial last month at the Federal Criminal Court of Switzerland in Bellinzona.
“First of all, I have to say that I’m very happy man,” the 86-year-old Blatter told reporters on the courthouse steps. “I am a happy man because I also have to express thanks to the court today, to this city, for people in the court, the way they have analyzed the situation and they have explained why both of us we haven’t done anything.”
