FIFA sues Blatter and Platini in pursuit of late, late payout
KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTING —– Sepp Blatter, now 83, is being sued by FIFA, the organisation for which he worked for 40 years as development director, general secretary then president.
Blatter and former FIFA vice-president and UEFA supremo Michel Platini are being made subject to legal action over the notorious ‘disloyal payment’ of 2m CHF paid by the one to the other on behalf of the world football federation in 2010.
Happier days . . . Michel Platini and Sepp Blatter
Blatter and Platini have both denied wrongdoing although the payment led by both being banned from the game by the FIFA ethics committee.
Blatter remains under a six-year suspension while Platini’s four-year ban expired in October.
The two men were hauled out of a meeting of the FIFA executive committee in Zurich in the summer of 2015 only weeks after the body had been shattered by revelations of the FIFAGate investigation by the United States authorities which led to the criminal indictment of more than 40 international football executives.
A FIFA statement said: “FIFA has today filed claims in the relevant Swiss courts against former FIFA President Joseph Blatter and former FIFA Vice-President Michel Platini, seeking restitution of the 2 million francs unduly paid to Mr. Platini back in February 2011.”
FIFA statement:
FIFA has today filed claims in the relevant Swiss courts against former FIFA President Joseph Blatter and former FIFA Vice-President Michel Platini, seeking restitution of the CHF 2 million unduly paid to Mr Platini back in February 2011.
This follows the unanimous resolution recently adopted by the FIFA Governance Committee in which it emphasised that FIFA was duty-bound to try to recover the funds illicitly paid by one former official to another. Even the Swiss Federal Supreme Court has confirmed that this CHF 2 million gift was to be viewed as an “undue payment”.
If and when successfully recovered, these funds (together with interest) will be fully channelled back into football development, which is where the money should have gone in the first place.
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