Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and former UEFA President Michel Platini have been given a clean chit in a FIFA trial by a Swiss criminal court on Friday.
The duo was facing corruption charges, they were accused of fraud after a payment of 2 million Swiss francs from FIFA to Platini was exposed in 2015. The payment was made in 2011. In their defense, the pair clarified that the payment was made following a 'gentleman's agreement' whereby the then FIFA president Blatter had asked Platini to be his technical advisor in 1998.
Platini worked for Blatter from 1998 to 2002, but FIFA could not clear his complete annual salary and would only pay him 300,000 Swiss francs annually due to the organisation's financial troubles. The rest of his salary, amounting to 1 million francs/year was to be paid later.
The US government began the investigation in multiple cases of bribery and money laundering at FIFA in 2015 where Blatter's case also came to the fore. He and Platini both stepped down and were banned from football for 8 years.
Platini after the verdict said, 'My fight is a fight against injustice. I won the first game'