Michel Platini isn't letting this go. A decade after a corruption scandal torpedoed his bid to lead world football, the former UEFA president has launched criminal and civil legal proceedings in France against FIFA and its current president Gianni Infantino.
The criminal complaint, filed in Paris, accuses Infantino alongside former FIFA legal director Marco Villiger and former audit committee chairman Domenico Scala of malicious prosecution and influence peddling. The civil lawsuit targets FIFA directly, demanding full financial compensation for what Platini calls a deliberate internal operation to block his path to the presidency.
What actually happened in 2015
The whole thing traces back to a 2 million Swiss franc payment — roughly $2.51 million — made to Platini by FIFA. It had been authorised in 2011 by then-president Sepp Blatter. When it surfaced in late 2015, ethics bans followed for both Blatter and Platini. Infantino, who at the time was serving as UEFA general secretary directly under Platini, then won the FIFA presidency in early 2016.
The timing was, to put it gently, convenient.
Platini and Blatter were ultimately acquitted — definitively — by a Swiss federal criminal appeals court on March 25, 2025. The fraud and forgery charges were thrown out. The acquittal became final in September of that year.
Now 70, Platini has been clear-eyed about what he believes: the case was engineered to stop him becoming FIFA president. He's also admitted he's too old to return to football. This isn't about reclaiming a position. It's about accountability.
What Platini wants investigators to look at
Under the criminal complaint, French investigators have been asked to examine whether Swiss prosecutors improperly coordinated with FIFA during the original investigation. That's a serious allegation — essentially that the judicial process itself was weaponised.
- Criminal complaint targets Infantino, Villiger, and Scala for malicious prosecution and influence peddling
- Civil lawsuit seeks financial compensation from FIFA for blocking his presidential election
- Investigators asked to probe whether Swiss prosecutors and FIFA coordinated improperly
FIFA has previously denied any wrongdoing and was not available for comment when this story broke. That silence will become harder to maintain as French investigators begin to dig.
