Blatter and Platini cleared in FIFA graft case

AFP | London

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Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and ex-UEFA chief Michel Platini yesterday were acquitted on appeal by a Swiss court in a long-running corruption case that shattered their careers as the most powerful figures in world football.

Blatter, 89, and Platini, 69, listened in silence as the Extraordinary Court of Appeal clerk in the town of Muttenz, near Basel, read out a decision identical to the one handed down in 2022, which had initially cleared them.

Prosectors had requested suspended sentences of 20 months for the pair, but charges of fraud, for which they risked five years’ imprisonment, as well as disloyal management, breach of trust and forgery of documents were all dismissed.