ZURICH: Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini must now wait to see if the Swiss judiciary will drop the long-drawn-out investigation into the notorious “disloyal payment” by FIFA back in 2010.
Blatter has been questioned in short bursts all this week and a prosecutor’s decision is expected in the “next few weeks” according to his spokesman Thomas Renggli.
The investigation opened in 2015 and Blatter was questioned in the offices of the federal prosecutor in Zurich. Renggli said: “Mr Blatter is relieved. He’s glad it’s over. It was tough for him this week, mentally and physically.”
Blatter’s hearing had been delayed for several months because of the 85-yewar-old’s frail health. He underwent heart surgery last December and could be questioned for only 90 minutes each day.
The investigation concerns the payment by FIFA, on the orders of then-president Blatter, of two million Swiss francs to Platini in early 2011, without written justification.
Platini was then UEFA president but the work for which he claimed the payment had been undertaken 10 years earlier when he worked as Blatter’s ‘football counsellor’.
Blatter is being prosecuted for “suspicion of fraud, breach of trust and unfair management”, while the criminal proceedings against Platini are being carried out for “suspicion of fraud, participation in breach of trust, participation in unfair management and fake in titles. “
Platini completed questioning in mid-March.
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