Former European Football Union (Uefa) president Michel Platini said today that his honor has been restored and a decade of harassment has ended, after he was acquitted of corruption charges, along with former FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
"A decade of harassment by FIFA and several Swiss federal prosecutors is now over," Platini told reporters as he left the Court of Appeal in Mutenz.
The legendary French footballer and three-time Ballon d'Or winner said he was relieved because he had always claimed that the two million francs of FIFA money that Blatter paid him in early 2011 was a salary for his work as an advisor from 1998 to 2002.
Blatter and Platini were acquitted for the second time of charges of fraud, forgery, mismanagement and embezzlement of more than two million dollars of FIFA money in 2011.
"Nobody at home believed I was responsible for anything," said the former French national team captain, who was accused of defrauding Fifa by presenting it with a false invoice.
"I have known the story from the beginning and I have known from the beginning that it was a conspiracy to prevent me from becoming president of Fifa," Platini added, saying he was now too old for new responsibilities in football.
Blatter and Platini are on trial more than 14 years after the payment was made and nine and a half years since Swiss federal prosecutors formally began an investigation.
Details of the payment emerged after a corruption scandal engulfed FIFA in May 2015. US federal investigators launched a wide-ranging probe into international soccer officials. Swiss authorities made arrests in the early hours of the morning at a Zurich hotel and then seized FIFA's financial and business records.
At the time, Platini was widely expected to replace Blatter at the helm of world football. With their ouster, FIFA President Gianni Infantino became his first Uefa colleague. He was elected in February 2016 and is serving a second term until 2027.
"I know that for my enemies time was important. They don't care about two million, they care about time. They kept me away for 10 years," Platini said.
Commenting on the absence of Fifa representatives from the Mutenac trial, Platini said: "They won't even complain. They know very well that we won. We know that," Platini said.
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