Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, who were the two most powerful men in world football for the best part of a decade, have been found not guilty after standing trial in Switzerland charged with fraud and forgery.
The pair stood trial accused by Swiss prosecutors of unlawfully arranging a payment of SwFr2 million (about £1.6 million) in 2011, authorised by Blatter when he was the president of Fifa and made to Platini while he was president of Uefa.
Blatter was preparing to campaign for re-election at the time and a key factor was the influence with European voters of Platini. Both men denied the charges, following a six-year investigation, and would have faced up to five years in jail had they been convicted.
Blatter and Platini have always denied wrongdoing and cited a verbal agreement they had made more than 20 years ago for the money to be paid while Platini was special adviser to Blatter between 1998 and 2002.
Platini, 67, who as a player captained France to victory in the 1984 European Championship, ran the football governing body of Europe, Uefa, from 2007 to 2015.
The payment was revealed in 2015, at the height of the Fifa corruption scandal and led to Blatter being forced out of office early, in December of that year, and Platini prevented from standing to replace him.
“I want to express my happiness for all my loved ones that justice has finally been done after seven years of lies and manipulation,” Platini said. “My fight is a fight against injustice. I won a first game.”
Despite not naming individuals, Platini vowed to go after “culprits” who had led the case against him. “Let them count on me, we will meet again,” he said. “Because I will not give up and I will go all the way in my quest for truth.”
Blatter, who assumed the presidency in 1998, has been suffering from ill health and had to delay testimony after telling the court he had been suffering from chest pain.
