Khaberni - Frenchman Michel Platini, former president of the European Football Association "UEFA," filed a defamation lawsuit on Wednesday against three former members of the international governing body "FIFA," according to a source close to the case, confirming information from the French newspaper "Le Parisien."
The former star of the French national team lodged a complaint in late November against three former FIFA officials, the source reported, after being fully acquitted by the Swiss judiciary last August following a decade of proceedings in a fraud case that led to his departure from the presidency of the continental federation.
The complaint targets public statements made by these three unnamed individuals who had expressed positions about the accusations against Platini around ten years ago.
Platini and the then FIFA president, Swiss Joseph Blatter, were accused of illegally obtaining, at the expense of "FIFA," two million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros) for the benefit of Michel Platini, according to the prosecution.
The two men insisted that they had agreed from the beginning on an annual salary of one million Swiss francs, through a "verbal agreement" without witnesses, and that FIFA's financial situation did not allow for immediate payment to Platini.
The outbreak of this case in mid-2015, immediately after Sepp Blatter's resignation amid a series of scandals, hindered Platini's rise to the presidency of FIFA, paving the way for his then right-hand man at "UEFA," Gianni Infantino, to take over the presidency.
