Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini face 20-month suspended jail sentences in FIFA fraud trial

Prosecutors in the fraud trial of former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and vice president Michel Platini asked Wednesday for both men to get 20-month suspended prison sentences.

Blatter and Platini, a former France national team captain who was president of European governing body UEFA, faced sentences of up to five years for financial wrongdoing but actual jail time was considered to be unlikely ahead of their 11-day trial. Verdicts are expected on July 8.

The 86-year-old Blatter’s legal jeopardy increased Wednesday when prosecutors in FIFA’s home city Zurich confirmed to The Associated Press they had opened criminal proceedings against him in a separate complaint filed by soccer’s world body in 2020.

Blatter and his longtime right-hand man, former FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke, are now formal suspects in an investigation of alleged mismanagement relating to the FIFA World Football Museum project in central Zurich. The new details were first reported by a Swiss financial news website.

Earlier Wednesday at the Swiss federal criminal court in Bellinzona, prosecutor Thomas Hildbrand also asked the three judges for Platini to pay FIFA more than 2.2 million Swiss francs ($2.2 million) in compensation.

Blatter and Platini deny fraud and lesser charges relating to a FIFA-approved $2 million payment to the France great in 2011. At the time, Platini was UEFA president, a FIFA vice president and was expected to succeed Blatter, likely in 2015.

Blatter and Platini testified last week and both are expected to make closing statements at the end of the trial on June 22.