Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter distanced himself from corruption in soccer when he went on trial Monday for the second time alongside his one-time protege Michel Platini.
Blatter and Platini returned to a federal court room nearly three years after they were acquitted at a first trial on charges of fraud, forgery and misappropriation of FIFA money. Swiss federal prosecutors appealed against those verdicts from July 2022.
Blatter approved a FIFA payment of 2 million Swiss francs (now $2.21 million) to Platini in 2011 for working as a presidential advisor a decade earlier.
"When you talk about falsehoods, lies and deceptions, that is not me," the 88-year-old Blatter said in German to three judges hearing the case. "That didn't exist in my whole life."
Blatter and Platini deny wrongdoing in a case now in its 10th year. They have consistently claimed at five different judicial bodies -- twice at FIFA, then the Court of Arbitration for Sport and now two federal criminal courts -- that they had a verbal "gentleman's agreement" to one day settle the unpaid salary.
When federal prosecutors published their initial indictment in November 2021, they said the payment "damaged FIFA's assets and unlawfully enriched Platini."
The acquittal came nearly seven years after the investigation was opened and removed them as leaders of FIFA and UEFA. It also ended Platini's campaign as the favored candidate to succeed Blatter, his former mentor in soccer politics, as FIFA president.
"I am hopeful," Blatter told reporters in German approaching the courthouse appearing frail one week before his 89th birthday.
Blatter arrived at court 10 minutes after his co-defendant Platini, the former UEFA president and FIFA vice president. Platini did not speak with reporters.
Their second trial is expected to last four days through Thursday. The verdict from three judges is scheduled on March 25.
Prosecutor Thomas Hildbrand, a veteran of FIFA investigations dating back more than two decades, has asked for sentences of 20 months, suspended for two years.
Blatter was president of FIFA and the most influential figure in world soccer for 17 years until being ousted early from office in 2015 amid fallout from a corruption crisis in the sport.
Platini worked to help Blatter get elected in 1998 and then agreed to be a presidential advisor on an annual salary of 300,000 Swiss francs (now $332,000) through 2002. They claim there was a verbal deal to later get the balance of 1 million Swiss francs for each year that FIFA could not pay at the time.
The payment was finally made in February 2011 and FIFA's then-finance director Markus Kattner was due to testify Monday.
Details of the payment emerged in the crisis that hit FIFA in May 2015. U.S. federal investigators unsealed a sweeping investigation of international soccer officials. Swiss authorities made early-morning arrests at hotels in Zurich before seizing FIFA financial and business records.
In 2015, Swiss federal prosecutors already were handling a criminal complaint filed by FIFA about possible financial wrongdoing linked to votes in December 2010 that picked Russia and Qatar as future World Cup hosts.
Blatter and Platini were acquitted in July 2022 after an 11-day trial at Switzerland's federal criminal court in Bellinzona.
An appeal was filed months later by the Swiss attorney general's office and FIFA, and the fresh trial was delayed after Platini won a ruling last year ordering federal appeal judges to be recused.
The second trial eventually opened Monday at a cantonal (state) courthouse sitting as a federal tribunal. It is being heard in German by three judges each from different cantons (states). FIFA was not represented in court.
"Where is FIFA?" Platini's lawyer Dominic Nellen asked the judges, requesting a dismissal of the soccer body's status as appelant.
FIFA has pursued a civil judgment to recover the money and 229,000 Swiss francs ($253,000) in social charges paid, plus interest. Platini has said he declared the money as income and paid taxes on it.
Neither Blatter nor Platini has worked in soccer since they were suspended by the FIFA ethics committee in October 2015. They were later banned and failed to overturn those in separate appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2016.
Platini's ban expired in 2019 and Blatter was given a subsequent ban by FIFA in 2021 months before his first was due to end.
Blatter is exiled from soccer until late in 2028 -- when he will be aged 92 -- because of an ethics prosecution of alleged self-dealing in eight-figure management bonuses paid for successfully organizing the men's World Cup in 2010 and 2014.
Kattner also was banned by FIFA for 10 years in 2020 as part of that case.