Ballon d'Or winner files criminal complaint against FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino faced a renewed criminal complaint in France on Monday, filed by his former superior Michel Platini. Platini, who had been poised to take over FIFA until a 2015 financial misconduct case surfaced, is again the focus of legal action, according to ESPN.

Platini, who was acquitted last year after a second Swiss court trial, has instructed Paris lawyers to submit a criminal complaint against Infantino and five other Swiss football and prosecution officials.

The three‑time Ballon d’Or winner (1983, 1984, 1985) claims a conspiracy of false accusations and influence peddling prevented him from becoming FIFA president a decade ago.

In addition to the criminal complaint, lawyers will file a civil suit seeking damages from FIFA, a Platini spokesperson said. These allegations were first made in 2022 against Swiss authorities.

The new filings were announced three days before Infantino opens the FIFA World Cup, which will be played across North America and has often placed him on a political stage with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Infantino was elected FIFA leader in 2016 as a surprise candidate from UEFA, where he had served as the long‑time general secretary to its president Platini.

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Platini was widely expected in football circles to succeed former mentor Sepp Blatter as FIFA president. Blatter was leaving office amid U.S. federal investigations into corruption among soccer officials that were unsealed in May 2015.

Four months later, both Platini and Blatter were targeted in a separate Swiss investigation involving a 2 million Swiss francs ($2.5 million) payment that would have removed them from office early.

Both men were acquitted twice on charges of defrauding FIFA: first when they stood trial together in Switzerland in 2022, and again last year on appeal by the federal prosecution office.

The five men named in Platini’s criminal complaint also include Switzerland’s attorney general in 2015, Michael Lauber, and FIFA’s legal director at the time, Marco Villiger.

James Agberebi

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