Former European Football Association (UEFA) president Michel Platini filed a criminal complaint today against the president of the International Football Federation (FIFA) Gianni Infantino for false accusations and influence peddling.
Platini was supposed to take over FIFA, but he was accused of financial misconduct in 2015, after which Infantino took over the position.
Platini, who was acquitted again last year after a second trial in Switzerland, has asked lawyers in Paris to file criminal charges against Infantino and five other Swiss football and prosecutorial officials, alleging a conspiracy of false accusations and influence peddling to prevent him from becoming FIFA president a decade ago.
Among the five are the 2015 Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber and the then FIFA legal director Mark Villiger.
The lawyers will also file a civil lawsuit seeking damages from FIFA, Platini's spokesman added in a statement about allegations previously made in 2022, directed at Swiss authorities.
The new entries were announced three days before Infantino will open the World Cup, which begins on June 11 in the US, Canada and Mexico.
Infantino was elected FIFA president in 2016, as a surprise candidate from UEFA, where he was a long-time general secretary under president Platini.
It was expected in football circles that Platini would become FIFA president and replace former mentor Sepp Blatter, who was leaving office as a result of US federal investigations into corruption among football officials that were uncovered in 2015.
However, four months later, Platini and Blatter were the targets of a separate investigation in Switzerland into a payment of two million Swiss francs, which led to both of them leaving office early.
Both were twice acquitted of fraud charges at a joint trial in Switzerland in 2022 and again last year on appeal by the federal prosecutor's office.
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