Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and France soccer great Michel Platini were both cleared of corruption charges by a Swiss court on Tuesday, two and a half years after they were first acquitted of the offences. - REUTERS
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00:00Leaving a Swiss court acquitted for the second time.
00:06Two former powerhouses of world soccer, former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and France soccer
00:12great Michel Platini, were cleared of corruption charges on Tuesday.
00:17Two and a half years after they were acquitted of the offences in 2022, the hearing came
00:21about after Swiss federal prosecutors appealed the first decision.
00:26Both men had denied the charge.
00:28Blatter was relieved outside the courthouse near Basel.
00:35I'm happy that the pressure that has been weighing on me for over ten years is now gone.
00:40It was a difficult time for me.
00:43And now the justice system has finally done what's right and proper.
00:50And of course, this is a big event for me, my family and also for my girlfriend.
00:57I still need to get myself together.
00:59I'm full of emotions right now.
01:05And I can tell you, life goes on and things are a little easier now.
01:15The case related to a 2 million Swiss franc, or $2.26 million payment, Blatter authorised
01:21for Platini, a former captain and manager of the French national team.
01:25The payment was a consultancy fee paid to Platini for work carried out between 1998
01:31and 2002, which he said had been partly deferred because FIFA lacked the funds to pay him in
01:37full immediately.
01:39The court said there were doubts about the prosecution's allegation that the payment
01:43was fraudulent and that the pair's account of an oral agreement for the payment could
01:48not be ruled out.
01:50The scandal emerged in 2015 when Platini was president of European soccer's ruling body
01:56UEFA and ended his hopes of succeeding Blatter, who was forced out of FIFA over the affair.
02:04Platini expressed frustration outside court after the decision, saying the case had been
02:10about preventing him from becoming FIFA president, but he added that today he is happy because
02:16this matter is over, we can move on.
02:21The Swiss Attorney General's office said it would review the judgement before deciding
02:25whether to appeal to the Swiss federal court, the country's highest legal authority.