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The former UEFA president and French football icon Michel Platini has launched civil and criminal legal proceedings against FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino, accusing them of orchestrating a malicious plot that destroyed his ambition to lead world football and unfairly ended his career as an administrator. The legal action, filed in courts in Paris and Marseille, threatens to overshadow the opening of the 2026 World Cup, which begins on Thursday in Mexico City.
Platini, now 70, has filed a criminal complaint in the Paris courts against Infantino and two other former FIFA officials – former legal director Marco Villiger and former audit and compliance committee chairman Domenico Scala – accusing them of active influence peddling, association with a criminal conspiracy to file malicious charges, and defamation. In a parallel civil action before a court in Marseille, the three‑time Ballon d’Or winner is seeking financial compensation from FIFA for what his lawyers describe as a calculated campaign to block his path to the presidency of world football’s governing body.
The case stems from a payment of two million Swiss francs (approximately $2.5 million, £1.6 million) that Platini received from Sepp Blatter, the then FIFA president, in 2011. Platini and Blatter have always insisted the payment was the belated settlement of a debt for legitimate consultancy work that the Frenchman had performed between 1998 and 2002 – a claim that FIFA and Swiss prosecutors at the time rejected. The transaction only became public in 2015, in the wake of the sprawling corruption scandal that brought down Blatter’s regime. At the time, Platini was the overwhelming favourite to succeed Blatter in the presidential election scheduled for February 2016. Instead, the revelation of the payment prompted Swiss prosecutors to open an investigation into an alleged “disloyal payment.” Both Platini and Blatter were suspended from football – Platini received an eight‑year ban from FIFA’s ethics committee, later reduced to four years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport – and Platini was forced to withdraw his candidacy.
That withdrawal cleared the path for Infantino, who had served as Platini’s deputy as UEFA general secretary, to stand for election. Infantino won the FIFA presidency in February 2016 and has since been re‑elected twice without opposition. He is currently presiding over the 2026 World Cup, which opens on Thursday across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The Swiss criminal case against Platini and Blatter lasted nearly a decade. The pair were tried twice: first in 2022 in Bellinzona, and again on appeal in Muttenz in 2025. In March 2025, a Swiss federal criminal appeals court definitively acquitted both men of all charges of fraud, forgery and misappropriation, bringing the long‑running prosecution to an end. Platini has consistently maintained that he was the victim of an injustice and that the investigation was driven by a desire to remove him from the presidential race. “He wants it legally recognised that he was taken down with entirely fictitious offences to stop him becoming FIFA president,” a spokesman for Platini said.
In a statement sent to the AFP news agency, Platini’s legal team said the criminal complaint would also ask an investigating judge to examine the possible involvement of three senior Swiss judicial officials in what the former UEFA president alleges was a conspiracy. The complaint, which has been placed in the hands of the coordinating judge of the investigating magistrates in Paris, will automatically lead to the appointment of an investigating judge. The lawyers said that they intend to demonstrate that a coordinated effort was made to damage Platini’s reputation and block his path to the FIFA presidency.
The timing of the legal action is particularly awkward for Infantino, who is scheduled to hold a rare media conference on Wednesday, the day before the World Cup kicks off. FIFA has been asked for comment but has not yet responded to the latest allegations.
In a notable irony, Infantino once served as Platini’s protégé. He was general secretary of UEFA under Platini’s presidency for seven years, and the two men worked closely together. Platini now accuses his former lieutenant of betrayal. The Frenchman alleges that Infantino, together with Villiger and Scala, conspired to feed information to Swiss prosecutors and FIFA’s ethics committee to ensure that he would be forced out of the race.
Platini’s lawyers have also announced that they will file a separate civil action seeking damages for the income Platini would have earned had he become FIFA president in 2016. The action will be brought before a court in Marseille and will name FIFA as the sole defendant.
The development has sent shockwaves through the football world, which had largely assumed that the Platini affair was finally closed after his acquittal in Switzerland. The case now raises the prospect of a prolonged legal confrontation between one of the greatest players in the history of the game and the current leadership of world football, just as FIFA is gearing up to stage its showpiece tournament. The 2026 World Cup, the first edition to feature 48 teams, will be played across three countries. But the opening ceremony, which had been intended to showcase the unity of the sport, may now be overshadowed by a courtroom drama that traces its origins to the very corruption crisis FIFA spent years trying to leave behind.
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