The China Mail - 'FIFA owed me this money' says Platini in appeals court

"I still don't understand why the public prosecutor's office is picking on me," the French three-time Ballon d'Or winner said at the start of his hearing.

The special appeals court, sitting in Muttenz near Basel, is hearing a request by the country's Attorney General's office (OAG) to reopen proceedings against the 69-year-old Platini as well as former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who turns 89 on March 10.

The long-running legal saga began in 2015, when Blatter quit as head of FIFA in a corruption crisis. It stems from the delayed payment of two million Swiss francs FIFA paid Platini, who was president of UEFA from 2007 to 2015, in 2011 for consultancy services.

The pair were acquitted by the Swiss Federal Court in June 2022 of charges that included "disloyal management", "breach of trust" and "forgery of securities".

The Federal Court concluded that fraud was "not established with a likelihood bordering on certainty" and gave them the benefit of the doubt.

Back in court on Monday, Platini said he had been "surprised" when Blatter first asked him his salary expectations when he came on board as an advisor to help him win the presidency election in 1998.

"As I didn't know this world, the world of FIFA, I randomly said 'one million'," said Platini.

"He asked me 'one million of what?'. I wanted to joke a bit and said 'one million of whatever you want: roubles, pesetas, lire'. And Mr Blatter said 'one million Swiss francs'."

In 1999, Blatter allegedly told Platini, who had been advising without a written contract, that he could not pay him the million so the two men agreed a written deal for 300,000 Swiss francs.

"He told me: 'I'll give you the balance later, when we have money at FIFA’," said Platini.

His invoice, which he presented in 2011, was duly described by the public prosecutor as a "false invoice" designed to defraud the organisation.

Platini insisted he would have taken legal action if FIFA had not paid the invoice.

"A contract is a contract, a word is a word," he said. "FIFA owed me that money and I would have done anything to get it back."

Blatter said on Monday that he had struck "a gentleman's agreement" with Platini but that the agreement had been purely oral, was made without witnesses and did not appear in FIFA's accounts.

A.Sun--ThChM