Michel Platini, right, former UEFA president and FIFA vice president, arrives for his retrial in front of the special appeals court, in Muttenz, Switzerland . ( AP)

MUTTENZ, Switzerland, March 3, (AP): Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter distanced himself from corruption in soccer when he went on trial Monday for the second time alongside his one-time protege Michel Platini.

Blatter and Platini returned to a federal courtroom nearly three years after they were acquitted at a first trial on charges of fraud, forgery, and misappropriation of FIFA money. Swiss federal prosecutors appealed against those verdicts in July 2022.

Blatter approved a FIFA payment of 2 million Swiss francs (now $2.21 million) to Platini in 2011 for working as a presidential advisor a decade earlier.

"When you talk about falsehoods, lies, and deceptions, that is not me,” the 88-year-old Blatter said in German to three judges hearing the case. "That didn’t exist in my whole life.”

Blatter and Platini deny wrongdoing in a case now in its 10th year. They have consistently claimed at five different judicial bodies - twice at FIFA, then the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and now two federal criminal courts - that they had a verbal "gentleman's agreement” to one day settle the unpaid salary.

When federal prosecutors published their initial indictment in November 2021, they said the payment "damaged FIFA’s assets and unlawfully enriched Platini.”

The acquittal came nearly seven years after the investigation was opened and removed them as leaders of FIFA and UEFA. It also ended Platini’s campaign as the favored candidate to succeed Blatter, his former mentor in soccer politics, as FIFA president.

"I am hopeful,” Blatter told reporters in German as he approached the courthouse, appearing frail one week before his 89th birthday.

Blatter arrived at court 10 minutes after his co-defendant Platini, the former UEFA president and FIFA vice president. Platini did not speak with reporters.

Their second trial is expected to last four days through Thursday. The verdict from three judges is scheduled for March 25.

Prosecutor Thomas Hildebrand, a veteran of FIFA investigations dating back more than two decades, has asked for sentences of 20 months, suspended for two years.

Blatter was president of FIFA and the most influential figure in world soccer for 17 years until being ousted early from office in 2015 amid fallout from a corruption crisis in the sport.

Platini worked to help Blatter get elected in 1998 and then agreed to be a presidential advisor on an annual salary of 300,000 Swiss francs (now $332,000) through 2002. They claim there was a verbal deal to later get the balance of 1 million Swiss francs for each year that FIFA could not pay at the time.