Platini has filed a criminal complaint against FIFA chief Infantino

Former UEFA president Michel Platini, currently on trial for fraud, has filed a lawsuit against FIFA president Gianni Infantino. His lawyers made the announcement in a statement on Tuesday 5 April. While still his subordinate, Infantino allegedly abused his position as UEFA secretary general.

Gianni Infantino officially served as UEFA Secretary General from 2009-2016, and was then elected FIFA President at the FIFA Congress on 26 February 2016. However, the election came against the backdrop of a scandal that cost the positions of UEFA president Michel Platini and FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

At the time, Platini could not credibly explain what he received 1.8 million Swiss francs (around 46 million crowns) from Blatter for. The defence that it was a reward for consultancy work was not accepted, so he received an eight-year ban from football from UEFA. This was halved on appeal by the International Arbitration Tribunal in Lausanne.

Sepp Blatter, who received a six-year ban, was replaced by Gianni Infantino at the FIFA Extraordinary Congress. He defeated the current FIFA senior vice-president and president of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, in that election.

However, this was not the only problem for Platini, as other allegations of corruption came to light. At his birthday party he was to receive a Picasso lithograph, Football, from Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov. This was to serve as a bribe in exchange for Russia being awarded the World Cup in 2018 or 2022.

Usmanov recently appeared on the EU and UK sanctions list in connection with the war in Ukraine. He also owns the naming rights to Everton’s new stadium. The Liverpool club has ended all dealings with his companies, USM, MegaFon and Yota, losing £300m, according to the Daily Mail.

Did Infantino abuse his position?

However, this is far from the first time Gianni Infantino has been in this situation. In 2020, he was investigated by the Swiss authorities for three meetings with Michael Lauber. At the time, the latter led the investigation into more than 20 cases in which FIFA officials were suspected of corruption. Infantino rejected the allegations of influencing the investigation and the FIFA Ethics Committee closed the internal investigation, citing a lack of evidence.

As a statement from Michel Platini’s lawyers said, the former France midfielder has filed criminal charges against his former subordinate.

In it, they accuse him of abusing his position as UEFA secretary general. Something similar to what he was investigated for two years ago. He is also asking for four other men to be questioned, including Michael Lauber.

According to the statement, a criminal complaint was filed as early as 17 November last year, when Platini, along with Sepp Blatter, was accused of financial fraud, among other things.

Sources: L’Équipe, Daily Mail, iDnes.cz, Sport, Foot Mercato