Trial of Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini will make for electric theatre

They were once the two most powerful men in global football, until being banned by Fifa’s ethics committee in 2015 over a secret payment of two million Swiss francs (£1.65m at the current exchange rate). Now, after a seven-year investigation, that same payment will lead to Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini finally stepping into the Swiss federal criminal court this week, facing fraud, embezzlement and other corruption charges.

The 86-year-old Blatter, who has been battling ill-health, is due on the stand on day one of the two-week trial, which starts in Bellinzona on Thursday. Platini will be interrogated on Friday. The trial, which will be before a panel of three judges, will conclude on 22 June, with a verdict on 8 July.

It will certainly make for electric theatre. But the stakes in football’s trial of the century could not be higher for Blatter or Platini. If found guilty they could face a five-year prison sentence as well as a substantial fine.

At the heart of the case is the infamous two million Swiss francs “disloyal” payment to Platini for consultancy services that was authorised by Blatter in January 2011, which ended up finishing both men’s careers in football. That payment, Swiss prosecutors allege, “was made without a legal basis” and “unlawfully enriched Platini”.

Documents posted by the court provide further details to the prosecutors’ case. “Joseph S Blatter and Michel François Platini are accused of illegally obtaining a payment of CHF 2m to the detriment of Fifa and social security contributions of CHF 229,126 in favour of Platini,” they state. “Among other things, Platini submitted a presumably fictitious invoice to Fifa in 2011 for an [allegedly] still existing claim for his consulting work for Fifa