Platini accuses three former Fifa members of defamation | OneFootball

Former UEFA president Michel Platini has filed a defamation lawsuit against three former FIFA members, a source close to the case informed AFP on Wednesday, confirming a report by the newspaper Le Parisien.

The former French player filed the lawsuit at the end of November against three former officials of the football governing body, three months after being definitively acquitted by the Swiss judiciary following a ten-year legal process in the fraud case that removed him from the presidency of UEFA (Union of European Football Associations), the source confirmed.

The lawsuit concerns public statements made by these former FIFA members, whose names have not been disclosed, who spoke out a decade ago about the accusation against Platini.

The Accusation

The former number 10 of the French national team and the then FIFA president, Joseph Blatter, were accused of having “illegally obtained, to the detriment of FIFA, a payment of 2 million Swiss francs (R$ 13.6 million at the current exchange rate) in favor of Michel Platini,” according to the Swiss Public Prosecutor's Office.

Both argued that they had agreed from the start on an annual salary of 1 million Swiss francs (R$ 6.8 million), through a “gentlemen's agreement” and without witnesses, although FIFA's finances did not allow for the payment at the time.

The revelation of the case, in mid-2015, shortly after Blatter's resignation due to a series of scandals, removed Platini from the race for the FIFA presidency.

His downfall paved the way for Gianni Infantino, who was then the right-hand man of the Frenchman at UEFA.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.