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One year and eight months of suspended prison requested against Platini and Blatter

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The Swiss prosecutor’s office requested a year and eight months in prison on Wednesday against former soccer player Michel Platini and former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, accusing them of having defrauded the soccer body by obtaining the Frenchman an unjustified payment of 2 million euros. Swiss francs (1.8 million euros).

The federal criminal court of Bellinzona (southeast) will announce on July 8 its decision on this case that ended the careers of both leaders, and for which they are theoretically exposed to up to five years in prison.

Prosecutor Thomas Hildbrand did not claim a firm prison sentence against the 66-year-old former French player and the 86-year-old Swiss player.

For more than four and a half hours, he dedicated himself to dismantling the thesis of an “oral contract” closed between the two men for an advisory job carried out by Platini between 1998 and 2002.

Blatter and Platini signed a written agreement in August 1999, which stipulated 300,000 Swiss francs a year paid by FIFA. But they claimed to have agreed to pay an additional 700,000 Swiss francs a year when the organization’s finances permitted.

Platini, who became president of UEFA, presented an invoice for 2 million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros) at the beginning of 2011, signed by Sepp Blatter and presented to FIFA as an unpaid salary.

Agreeing these sums without leaving a written record, without witnesses and without ever provisioning them in the accounts is “contrary to commercial uses” and to the customs of FIFA, insisted Thomas Hildbrand.

Started last Wednesday, the process should continue until June 22, with the allegations of FIFA -civil party- and the defenses.

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