Michel Platini sues FIFA and Infantino again: French judiciary should examine claims of a 2015 conspiracy
Michel Platini, the former UEFA president and one of the most influential figures in European football over the past three decades, has launched a new legal offensive against FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino. According to reports by Reuters and the Associated Press, Platini has initiated criminal proceedings in France against Infantino and several other people connected with FIFA and the Swiss judiciary, claiming that the events of 2015 were part of a broader plan intended to remove him from the race for president of the world football organization. At the same time, according to the same information, a separate civil lawsuit has also been filed against FIFA, seeking financial compensation for the damage Platini links to reputational harm, the loss of office and long-term consequences for his professional career. At the center of the dispute remains the payment of two million Swiss francs that FIFA paid to Platini in 2011, and which he and then FIFA president Sepp Blatter for years described as a delayed payment for advisory work from the period between 1998 and 2002.
The new legal move comes at an extremely sensitive moment for FIFA. According to the official schedule of the world football organization, the 2026 World Cup begins on 11 June in Mexico City, the tournament will be played in Canada, Mexico and the United States of America, and it is the first edition with 48 national teams and 104 matches. Precisely for that reason, the new complaint also has a broader symbolic resonance: while FIFA is preparing for the biggest tournament in its history, the question is being reopened as to whether the political and legal battles from the period after the major corruption investigations in 2015 permanently changed the balance of power in world football. It is important to emphasize here that Platini's claims are allegations that still have to be examined by the competent authorities. Infantino, FIFA and other people mentioned in the proceedings enjoy the presumption of innocence, and according to Reuters, FIFA was not immediately available for comment on the latest allegations.
What Platini claims in the new complaint
According to a Reuters report carried by The Star, the criminal complaint filed in Paris is directed against Gianni Infantino, former FIFA legal director Marco Villiger and former chairman of FIFA's audit and compliance committee Domenico Scala. The complaint, according to that report, mentions allegations of malicious criminal prosecution and influence peddling, namely the claim that internal moves within FIFA and contacts with judicial authorities led to Platini being stopped at the moment when he was one of the main candidates to succeed Sepp Blatter. The Associated Press, whose report was published by ESPN, states that Platini speaks of a conspiracy of false accusation and influence by which, in his view, he was prevented from taking over the office of FIFA president. Swiss football and judicial officials are also mentioned in these allegations, including people who held important institutional roles in 2015.
According to the Spanish daily AS, the case has been referred to an investigating judge in Paris, while a parallel civil damages action has been launched in Marseille. AS states that Platini is seeking damages from FIFA in the civil proceedings, including compensation that, according to his argument, he could have earned if he had not been removed from the presidential race and had taken the top office in the organization. His legal team claims that the purpose of the proceedings is to determine whether there were maneuvers by which Platini was politically and institutionally pushed away from FIFA. The first hearing in Marseille, according to the same source, should be held on 8 December, which indicates that the civil part of the dispute could last for months, and possibly years. The criminal part of the proceedings could be even more complex because it concerns events and actors from multiple jurisdictions.
The payment of two million francs as the beginning of the fall
The disputed case began in the autumn of 2015, when Swiss authorities investigated a payment of two million Swiss francs that FIFA had transferred to Platini four years earlier. According to Reuters and AP, the payment was approved in 2011 by Sepp Blatter, and Platini claimed that it was an overdue payment for advisory services he had performed for FIFA between 1998 and 2002. That amount became one of the central issues in FIFA's already seriously damaged image, after American and Swiss investigations opened a series of cases connected with corruption in international football. Although Platini's and Blatter's Swiss criminal proceedings were formally distinct from the American cases, they coincided in time with the period in which FIFA was going through the deepest institutional crisis in its modern history.
FIFA's Ethics Committee suspended Platini and Blatter in 2015, and the initial bans from football-related activities were eight years. According to FIFA's official announcement from February 2016, the FIFA Appeal Committee then reduced the sanctions to six years, along with fines of 80,000 Swiss francs for Platini and 50,000 Swiss francs for Blatter. The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne later, according to its own statement from May 2016, reduced Platini's ban from six to four years and the fine to 60,000 Swiss francs. CAS said at the time that FIFA's sanction had been too severe, but it did not accept Platini's request for the decisions to be overturned in full. For Platini, the political consequence was decisive: his candidacy for FIFA president was effectively made impossible, and shortly afterward he also had to leave the office of UEFA president.
Two acquittals in Switzerland
After years of proceedings, Swiss courts did not confirm the criminal liability of Platini and Blatter in the case of the disputed payment. According to a report by Euronews and the Associated Press, both men were acquitted for the second time by a Swiss court in March 2025, after they had already been acquitted in first-instance proceedings in 2022. They were charged with criminal offenses connected with fraud, forgery, mismanagement and embezzlement of FIFA money, but the court did not accept the prosecution's arguments. Reports on the verdict stated that Blatter and Platini repeated that the disputed amount was a deferred payment for previously agreed work, although the very question of an oral agreement had been the subject of dispute for years.
According to the Associated Press, the Swiss federal prosecutor's office decided in August 2025 not to file a new appeal against the acquittal, thereby ending that criminal case. Platini's lawyer Dominic Nellen then announced the possibility of legal action against those whom the defense considers responsible for initiating and conducting the proceedings. According to the same report, Nellen asserted that the criminal proceedings prevented Platini from being elected FIFA president in 2016 and left major personal and professional consequences, even though, according to his claim, no incriminating evidence was presented that would justify such an outcome. It is precisely this line of argument that now lies at the center of the new French proceedings, although the French judiciary will have to separately assess the legal basis of the allegations.
Infantino's rise and the change in the balance of power
Gianni Infantino was UEFA general secretary during the period when Platini led the European football organization. After Platini was suspended and effectively pushed out of the race, Infantino became the candidate from the European football sphere for the election that FIFA organized in February 2016. According to FIFA's official announcement, Infantino was elected on 26 February 2016 as the ninth president of FIFA after securing the required majority in the second round of voting at the extraordinary congress in Zürich. His election marked the end of the Blatter era and the beginning of a period in which FIFA announced reforms, the expansion of competitions and the restoration of trust in an institution badly hit by corruption scandals.
Platini's current legal strategy rests on the claim that this transfer of power did not occur only as a consequence of judicial proceedings and sporting sanctions, but also as the result of targeted action by individuals within the football system. According to Reuters, French investigators should examine whether there was inappropriate coordination between FIFA officials and Swiss prosecutors during the original investigation. That claim is legally demanding because it involves questions of jurisdiction, proof of intent and possible cooperation between sports institutions and state bodies. So far, there is no final ruling that would confirm Platini's allegations of such coordination, and previously, according to Reuters, FIFA denied any wrongdoing in its handling of the 2015 case.
Why the case is reopening in France
For Platini, the French judiciary is now a new arena in a long-running attempt to re-examine the manner in which he lost positions in football power in 2015. According to AFP reports carried by international media, his legal team wants a French investigating judge, police and competent investigative services to analyze documents, communications and the roles of people who were involved in the processes at the time. This also includes the possibility of international legal cooperation, because some of the key events took place in Switzerland, where FIFA is headquartered and where criminal proceedings against Platini and Blatter were conducted. In practice, such an investigation could require obtaining documentation, hearings and an assessment of whether some of the alleged actions are even criminally relevant under French law.
The civil lawsuit against FIFA has a different focus. There, according to AS and Reuters, Platini is seeking financial compensation for the damage he attributes to his exclusion from the race for FIFA's top position. Such a claim does not mean that the court will accept the assumption that Platini would certainly have won the 2016 election, but it opens the question of how damage from a lost political-sporting opportunity can be assessed at all. If the proceedings move in that direction, the court could consider Platini's status at the time, support among football associations, his previous reputation and the financial value of the office of FIFA president. This could be one of the most sensitive issues in the proceedings, because it moves between a concrete loss of income and a broader claim of a destroyed career.
Caution over the accusations and possible effects on FIFA
Although Platini was acquitted in the Swiss criminal proceedings, that in itself does not mean that his new claims are automatically proven. The French proceedings will have to separately establish whether there are elements of criminal offenses or civil liability, and for that evidence will be required that goes beyond a political interpretation of the events of 2015. On the other hand, the very fact that the former UEFA president and once-favorite for FIFA's top office is turning to the courts again shows how deep the wounds from that period have remained. The case also serves as a reminder that sporting sanctions, even when later separated from criminal liability, could in practice have irreparable consequences for officials' careers and the balance of power in major organizations.
For FIFA, the latest development is also uncomfortable because of the timing. The organization is entering the 2026 World Cup as a project that should demonstrate the global growth of the competition, market expansion and institutional strength under Infantino's leadership. According to FIFA's official data, the tournament will be played from 11 June to 19 July, with an expanded format and matches in three host countries. But the legal dispute that again links the current FIFA president with the events of 2015 could revive debates about transparency, the relationship between sports bodies and the judiciary, and the way reforms were carried out after the Blatter era. Whether that dispute will have only a reputational effect or grow into a serious judicial problem for FIFA and its current and former officials will depend on what French courts and investigators are able to confirm.
For Platini himself, the new proceedings also have a personal dimension. After being a three-time Ballon d'Or winner as a player, captain of France and one of the most recognizable figures in European football, Platini as UEFA president was on the path toward the highest office in world football. Instead, he ended up outside institutional football, first because of sporting sanctions and then because of a long criminal proceeding that ended in acquittals. His new legal claim therefore aims not only at financial compensation, but also at a formal re-examination of the narrative that has marked the last decade of his public life. Until the French judiciary decides on further steps, the case remains an open combination of sport, law and a battle for reputation at the very top of world football.
Sources:
- The Star / Reuters – report on the criminal complaint in Paris, the civil lawsuit against FIFA and allegations of malicious prosecution and influence peddling (link)
- ESPN / Associated Press – report on Platini's complaint against Gianni Infantino and the broader context of the 2015 case (link)
- AS – information on the French proceedings, the civil lawsuit in Marseille and the announced hearing (link)
- Courthouse News Service / Associated Press – report on the decision of the Swiss prosecutor's office not to file an appeal after the acquittal of Platini and Blatter (link)
- Euronews / Associated Press – report on the second acquittal of Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini before a Swiss court in March 2025 (link)
- FIFA – official announcement on the decision of the FIFA Appeal Committee reducing the sanctions against Platini and Blatter in 2016 from eight to six years (link)
- Court of Arbitration for Sport – statement on the reduction of Platini's suspension to four years and the fine to 60,000 Swiss francs (link)
- FIFA – official data on the schedule and format of the 2026 World Cup (link)
- FIFA – official announcement on the election of Gianni Infantino as FIFA president in 2016 (link)