World football ruling body FIFA on Monday filed claims in a court in Switzerland seeking to recover two million Swiss francs (about £1.56 million) from former French football star Michel Platini.
It said the money was paid inappropriately by ex-FIFA President Sepp Blatter to Platini.
“FIFA has today filed claims in the relevant Swiss courts against former FIFA President Joseph Blatter and former FIFA Vice-President Michel Platini, seeking restitution of the two million francs unduly
paid to Mr. Platini back in February 2011,” FIFA said.
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It added it was “duty-bound to try to recover the funds illicitly paid by one former official to another.”
Blatter and Platini, who could not immediately be reached for comments, have maintained they did nothing wrong.
This has come amid what became part of the biggest corruption scandal to shake the world football body, resulting in numerous prosecutions and convictions in the U.S.
Both men were banned from football in late 2015 over the payment made to the Frenchman by FIFA with Blatter’s approval in 2011 for work he had done a decade earlier.
Platini, the head of European football body UEFA from 2007 to 2015, was originally banned from all football-related activities for eight years.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) later reduced the suspension to four years, with his ban ending this year.
Blatter’s ban was reduced from eight years to six, a period later upheld by CAS.
This was a decision which concluded that the now-83-year-old had “breached the FIFA Code of Ethics since the payment amounted to an undue gift as it had no contractual basis.”(NAN)
