The Swiss judiciary has announced the dismissal of the case of former FIFA President Sepp Blatter on charges of “funding the construction of a football museum in Zurich in the amount of 500 million euros.”
On Tuesday, authorities said in a press release that the Zurich prosecutor’s office “closed the criminal case brought against two former FIFA officials associated with the FIFA Museum.”
“The investigation did not confirm the suspicions of violation of obligations, in the sense of unfair management,” she added.
And FIFA, led by Italian-Swissman Gianni Infantino, filed a complaint against its former president in December 2020 for “criminal mismanagement” over a museum project, after a €500m bill was issued that “could and should have been spent on the development of world football.
The complaint was also filed against three other individuals and, according to the prosecution, mainly concerned allegations of “breach of obligations” in entering into a lease agreement.
Subsequently, the Zurich prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case against the former president and former general secretary of FIFA and conducted an extensive investigation to ascertain the alleged facts.
According to the prosecutor’s office, “it was not possible to prove unlawful behavior (…) in the sense of breach of obligations, in connection with which, on March 27, 2023, the prosecutor’s office closed the criminal proceedings.”
The approximately 3,000 square meter FIFA Museum in Zurich that Blatter demanded to build was opened by Infantino in February 2016, the day after he was elected president.
Source: AFP