SEPP BLATTER and Michel Platini, formerly two of the most powerful men in world football, have been acquitted on fraud charges in the Swiss federal criminal court.
The verdict on former UEFA president Platini and ex-FIFA president Blatter was handed down in Bellinzona on Friday morning.
The two men had been charged by prosecutors last November following a six-year investigation into a two million Swiss francs (£1.7million) payment to Platini in 2011. Prosecutors alleged this payment from FIFA, authorised by Blatter, had been "made without legal basis".
However, both men have been acquitted.
"My client's full acquittal is the only correct outcome of these criminal proceedings," Platini's lawyer Dominic Nellen said in a statement.
Nellen added: "The court has properly assessed the evidence and finally put an end to this unspeakable criminal proceeding.
"A neutral court has finally found that no wrongdoing was committed in this case. My client is completely cleared and relieved accordingly."
Platini added: "I wanted to express my happiness for all my loved ones that justice has finally been done after seven years of lies and manipulation.
"The truth has come to light during this trial and I deeply thank the judges of the tribunal for the independence of their decision.
"I kept saying it - my fight is a fight against injustice. I won a first game. In this case, there are culprits who did not appear during this trial. Let them count on me, we will meet again. Because I will not give up and I will go all the way in my quest for truth.
"Despite the length of the procedure, I have always had confidence in the Swiss legal system and the rule of law that prevails here.
"Believe me, going from being a legend of world soccer to a devil is very difficult, especially when it comes to you in a totally unfair way.
"But before I think about the future, I would like to thank my family and my close friends, my lawyers who have so brilliantly assisted and encouraged me throughout my ordeal, and above all all the people I have met during all these years for their affectionate looks and their gestures so strongly marked by support and sympathy towards me."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here