Sensational in Nanterre. Michel Platini, former Juventus star, but above all former president of UEFA was arrested for corruption. The allegations would be related to the assignment of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
To reveal the news is the French site Mediapart, according to which the former number 10 was allegedly taken to the premises of the Anti-Corruption Office of the Judicial Police (OCLCIFF) in Nanterre. With Platini, Sophie Dion, Nicolas Sarkozy's sports advisor at the time he was president of the Republic, was also placed in custody. Claude Gueant, former secretary general of the Elysée, was questioned.
The arrest was confirmed by the police. The investigation concerns "alleged acts of active and passive corruption of non-public employees" in the procedures for assigning the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
The investigation of National Financial Prosecutor's Office started in 2016 and the former footballer had already been heard as a witness in 2017. The PNF, underlines Le Monde, is particularly interested in the lunch organized on 23 November 2010 at the Elysée Palace, in the presence of Sarkozy, Platini, the current Qatari Emir Tamim Ben Hamad Al Thani and then Prime Minister Hamad Ben Jassem. At that lunch, Le Monde continues, quoting its own sources, Dion and Guéant were also present. On that occasion, according to the investigators, there would have been a sort of barter. Had Qatar bought Paris Saint Germain, increased its stake in the Lagardère group and created a new sports channel, BeIn Sports – all of which happened later – they would have won the World Cup.
Qatar won the opportunity to host the World Cup in December 2010. An assignment which, however, at the time caused a lot of controversy relating to the suitability of the Arab country.
Michel Platini "has absolutely nothing to reproach himself for and claims to be totally extraneous to the facts". This was reported in a statement by the collaborators of the former UEFA president. "It is not an arrest in any way but he is heard as a witness, in a condition desired by the investigators which allows to prevent the people heard from agreeing outside the procedure", specifies the release released by the French media.
Platini was elected president of UEFA in 2007 and remained in office until 2015, when the ethics committee of FIFA decided to suspend him for having cashed a check from Sepp Blatter for two million Swiss francs in February 2011 for a consultancy carried out for the International Football Federation itself between 1998 and 2002. The accusations cost him an 8-year disqualification, reduced to 4. A year ago, the Swiss judiciary cleared him of all charges.
