BELLINZONA: Markus Kattner, former financial director of world football federation FIFA, has denied pointing up to investigators the controversial “disloyal payment” which has seen Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini put on trial in Bellinzona.

The former presidents of FIFA and European federation UEFA deny fraud charges over the delayed payment of 2m Swiss francs authorised by Blatter to Platini on the basis of what they claim to have been a verbal contract.

On Monday Olivier Thormann, a former prosecutor and now senior judge, named Kattner as having brought the payment to his attention while providing a list of payments made to executive committee members in 2010.

Kattner refuted the allegation.

He told the court he had handed over “very quickly . . . a large file with documents” in the presence of FIFA’s lawyers. However Kattner insisted he had not directed Thormann to “a particular payment”.

Kattner, who was sacked by FIFA in 2016 in the fall-out from the collapse of the Blatter regime, added: “I was then convinced of the legality of the payment so I would have had no reason to do so.

“I worked for a long time with Mr Platini and Mr Blatter and I didn’t feel they were dishonest. I do not understand how, on the basis of such a large number of documents and data, this payment would have given rise to an initial suspicion.”

############