Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and French football icon Michel Platini were exonerated of corruption charges by a Swiss court on Tuesday, two and a half years after their initial acquittal.
The pair, once towering figures in global football, had fraud charges against them dropped by the Extraordinary Appeals Chamber of the Swiss Criminal Court in Muttenz, near Basel.
The ruling followed an appeal from Swiss federal prosecutors against their 2022 acquittal in a lower court.
The charges stemmed from a 2 million Swiss franc ($2.26 million) payment Blatter authorized for Platini in 2011, which both men denied.
The court said there were doubts about the prosecution's allegation that the payment for Platini, a former captain and manager of the French national team, was fraudulent.
The 2022 indictment had accused Blatter and Platini of deceiving FIFA staff in 2010 and 2011 about an obligation for world football's ruling body to pay Platini.
"They falsely claimed that FIFA owed Platini, or that Platini was entitled to, the sum of 2 million Swiss francs for advisory work. This deception was achieved through repeated untruthful claims made by both accused parties," the indictment said.
However, the court cleared the pair, saying their account of an oral agreement for the payment could not be ruled out.
Platini had argued that the payment was partly deferred until 2011 because FIFA lacked the funds to pay him in full immediately.
The court noted that both men had been consistent in their accounts of the payment, which covered consultancy work carried out by Platini for Blatter between 1998 and 2002.
Platini's experience as a top footballer and coach explained the size of the payment, the court said, following the legal principle that in cases of doubt, favor the accused.
"It cannot be assumed that the defendants acted with the intention of enriching themselves in the sense of the charged offenses," the court said.
The scandal, which emerged in 2015 when Platini was president of European football's ruling body UEFA, ended his hopes of succeeding Blatter, who was forced out of FIFA over the affair.
Blatter and Platini were suspended from football in 2015 by FIFA for ethics breaches, initially for eight years, although their exclusions were later reduced.
Platini said he was relieved the case was over and had received messages of support from 10,000 people.
"The persecution by FIFA and some Swiss federal prosecutors for 10 years is now over," Platini told reporters. "It is now totally over. And for me, today, my honor has returned, and I am very happy."
The 69-year-old said he thought the case had been intended to prevent him from becoming FIFA president, but he was now too old to return to football.
The money, which had been confiscated and held by the Swiss authorities, can now be returned to him.
A frail-looking Blatter hugged his daughter Corinne after the judgment and said he was relieved by the decision.
"It is a great relief for me because it's been going on for 10 years. It's like a sword of Damocles hanging over my head," he told reporters.
"And now it's over, and I can breathe," the 89-year-old said.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 20 months in jail, suspended for two years, for both Blatter and Platini.
The Swiss attorney general's office said it would review the written judgment before deciding whether to appeal again to the Swiss Federal Court, the country's highest legal authority.
