More than six years after being ousted in a sprawling soccer corruption scandal, the former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and a one-time ally were indicted on fraud charges on Tuesday by the authorities in Switzerland, who accused the men of arranging a secret $2 million payment.
The office of Switzerland’s attorney general accused Blatter of unlawfully arranging the $2 million payment in 2011 to Michel Platini, who was then the head of European soccer’s governing body, UEFA. The criminal charges for fraud, criminal mismanagement and forgery follow a yearslong investigation into the payment, which came to light in 2015 after prosecutors at the United States Department of Justice revealed corrupt practices at FIFA dating back at least two decades.