Sepp Blatter (C) of Switzerland is surrounded by the media as he leaves the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, Switzerland, June 8, 2022. /CFP
The trial of former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and ex-UEFA chief Michel Platini over alleged corrupt payments came to a halt on Wednesday when Blatter said he was "too ill to testify."
Blatter, 86, of Switzerland was president of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) between 1998 and 2015 while 66-year-old Platini of France served as president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) from 2007 to 2015.
Platini is also a French football legend who as a player captained France to victory in the 1984 European Championship.
Swiss prosecutors accuse the pair, once among football's most powerful figures, of unlawfully arranging a payment of two million Swiss francs ($2.08 million) in 2011. They both deny the charges.
"I know I have not done anything against the law. My life was football, for 45 years with FIFA," Blatter told journalists outside the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, Switzerland.
But Blatter, who looked frail during the hearing, said he was unable to address the court due to chest pains.
"I'm not well. I have these problems that come and go. I can't breathe well. I don't feel capable at the moment of responding to an interrogation," Blatter told the court in a whisper.
The judges told Blatter the trial, which is due to last two weeks, was running on a tight schedule but eventually allowed him to make his testimony on Thursday.
The senior judge, Josephine Contu Albrizio, wished Blatter a good recovery.
Michel Platini of France speaks to the media after the first day of his trial over a suspected fraudulent payment in Bellinzona, Switzerland, June 8, 2022. /CFP
The investigation of Blatter and Platini began in 2015. Platini "submitted to FIFA in 2011 an allegedly fictitious invoice for an (alleged) debt still existing for his activity as an adviser for FIFA in the years 1998 to 2002," according to the court.
The Swiss Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) has accused Blatter and Platini of "fraud, in the alternative of misappropriation, in the further alternative of criminal mismanagement as well as of forgery of a document."
Platini was also charged as an accomplice.
Blatter and Platini were both banned in 2016 from football for six years over the payment, made with Blatter's approval for work done a decade earlier.
Both say they had a verbal agreement over the payment, which related to consultancy work by Platini between 1998 and 2002.
Three judges will hear the trial, which runs until June 22. A verdict is due on July 8. If convicted, Platini and Blatter face up to five years in jail.
(With input from Reuters)
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Former FIFA heavyweights Blatter and Platini in court after seven-year corruption investigation