Sepp Blatter has been charged with fraud in Switzerland along with Michel Platini ©Getty Images

Disgraced former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and ex-UEFA head Michel Platini have been charged with fraud by Swiss prosecutors following a long-running investigation into a controversial CHF2 million (£1.6 million/$2.2 million/€1.9 million) payment.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) said it had indicted the two former FIFA officials on fraud charges and other offences.

Blatter, 88, and 66-year-old Platini are expected to stand trial at the federal criminal court in Bellinzona within months.

Blatter, who led FIFA for 17 years before he resigned days after being re-elected in May 2015 amid the corruption scandal, and Platini - touted as the successor to the Swiss before he was also banned - both claim the payment was made under an oral agreement for work the Frenchman carried out for the Swiss between 1998 and 2002.

But the OAG said the payment to Platini "was made without a legal basis".

"This payment damaged FIFA's assets and unlawfully enriched Platini," the OAG added.

Blatter has been charged with fraud, mismanagement, misappropriation of FIFA funds and forgery of a document, while Platini has been indicted on charges including fraud, misappropriation, forgery and as an accomplice to Blatter’s alleged mismanagement.

Sepp Blatter is serving a separate ban for financial wrongdoing that he was given by FIFA in March of this year ©Getty Images
Sepp Blatter is serving a separate ban for financial wrongdoing that he was given by FIFA in March of this year ©Getty Images

The payment led to Blatter and Platini being banned from football for eight years, reduced on appeal to six and four years, respectively.

They had both denied wrongdoing regarding the payment, which followed a written request from the Frenchman to FIFA in January 2011 to be paid backdated additional salary.

The nine-year gap between the end of his work and the 2011 payment is still to be explained.

The investigation in Switzerland, where the wheels of justice turn slowly, took six years.

It was first opened in September 2015, three months after Blatter had stepped down early as FIFA President.

Platini, a former French international who was a member of the 1984 European Championship-winning team, was deemed a formal suspect in the case as late as June 2020 before the charge of fraud was added against the two officials.

FIFA last year filed claims for restitution of the CHF2 million paid to Platini in the relevant Swiss courts.

Blatter's ban expired last month but he was hit with another suspension, of six years and eight months, in March for financial wrongdoing.

More follows.