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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Marc Mayo

Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini to face FIFA corruption trial in June

Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini will stand trial in a Swiss court over allegations of corruption in June.

Former FIFA president Blatter, 86, and ex-France star turned UEFA chief Platini, 66, were indicted on fraud and other charges in November, particularly involving a payment from the football governing body to Platini in 2011. Both deny the allegations.

Prosecutors allege Blatter improperly arranged the payment to Platini for consulting work although the pair claim it was instead covering backdated salary.

The trial before the Swiss Federal Criminal Court is due to start on June 8 and last until June 22, the court said on its website.

Blatter, who led FIFA for 17 years, resigned in 2015, followed by Platini in 2016. Both were handed six-year bans for ethics violations.

The office of Blatter's attorney declined comment. At the time of his indictment, Blatter said: “I look forward to the trial before the Federal Criminal Court with optimism and I hope that this story will come to an end and that all the facts will be dealt with properly.”

Platini's Swiss lawyer was not immediately available for comment. In the past he has said his client was innocent and the case should have been dropped long ago.

The court said Blatter and Platini are accused of having unlawfully obtained, to the detriment of FIFA, the payment of 2 million Swiss francs (£1.65m) and social security contributions worth around 229,000 francs (£189,000) for Platini.

“Among other things, Michel Francois Platini had submitted to FIFA in 2011 a presumably fictitious invoice for an (allegedly) still existing claim for his consulting activities for FIFA in the years 1998 to 2002,” it said.

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