Prosecutor wraps up grilling of ex-FIFA boss Blatter

A Swiss prosecutor on Thursday wrapped up four days of final interviews with former Fifa president Sepp Blatter in a long-running investigation into a suspected fraudulent payment in 2011.

Former world football chief Blatter, 85, has met with a federal prosecutor every day since Monday for final hearings in the case that shook the sport.

Blatter is being investigated over a two million Swiss franc ($2.2 million, 1.85 million euro) payment to Michel Platini, who was then in charge of European football’s governing body Uefa.

The final hearings took place in Zurich, where Fifa has its headquarters.

“It’s over. It was the last day,” Blatter’s spokesman Thomas Renggli told AFP after Thursday’s fourth straight day of interviews.

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Blatter was forced to stand down in 2015 and was originally banned by Fifa for eight years, later reduced to six, over ethics breaches when he authorised what prosecutors termed a “disloyal payment” to Platini — in other words, one made in his interests rather than Fifa’s.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland said in a statement ahead of the hearings: “Conducting final interviews does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the outcome of criminal proceedings (discontinuation, penalty order or indictment).”