Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini acquitted again over financial wrongdoing at Fifa

Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini have won in court for a second time after facing trial over financial wrongdoing at Fifa.

The pair have now won both times against Swiss federal prosecutors after the latest verdict saw them acquitted on charges of fraud, forgery, mismanagement and misappropriation.

Previously among the most powerful figures in football, the former Fifa president and former Uefa president’s charges concerned more than $2m (£1.55m) of Fifa money in 2011.

And Blatter, now aged 89, was largely motionless when seen listening to the verdict of three cantonal (state) judges acting as a federal criminal appeals court.

The attorney general's office in Switzerland had challenged a first acquittal in July 2022 and asked for sentences of 20 months, suspended for two years.

The case centres around a payment Blatter authorised for Platini, which the pair maintain was a consultancy fee over the former captain and manager of the French national team’s work from 1998 to 2002.

Platini, who maintains he partly deferred the payment because Fifa lacked the funds to make the payment in full immediately, saw his hopes of succeeding Blatter at Fifa fall apart as a result of the allegations.

Blatter and Platini were suspended from football in 2015 for eight years by Fifa over ethics breaches, though the bans were later cut, with the former previously holding an audacious plan for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to be hosted by Russia and the USA, sources tell The Independent.

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"There's no corruption, there's no swindling, there's nothing at all," Platini told reporters before the latest trial.

While the Frenchman’s lawyer Dominic Nellen insists the case was a plot to stop Platini succeeding Blatter as Fifa president.

"Platini was the most likely successor to Blatter in 2015, but someone wanted him out of the way," Nellen said. "At every turn there seems to be an attempt to stop Platini becoming president of FIFA.”

Gianni Infantino, who had worked for Platini at Uefa, would step up to replace Blatter as president, and has remained adamant he only did so at the request of Uefa given Platini’s ban.

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Prosecutors were pushing for a sentence of 20 months in jail, suspended for two years for both Blatter and Platini, in addition to confiscating the money.

An appeal against the verdict could now take the case to the Swiss Federal Court, the country's highest legal authority.

Reuters contributed to this report