Trail starts for fallen football chiefs Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini

• The trail for Blatter and  Platini begins today.
• Blatter and Platini appeared before the Federal Criminal Court in the southern Swiss city of Bellinzona.
• The trial will end on June 22, and a decision is anticipated on July 8.

Former world and European football presidents Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini went on trial in Switzerland on Wednesday for an alleged illegal payment.

Blatter, 86, and Platini, 66, appeared before the Federal Criminal Court in the southern Swiss city of Bellinzona, following a six-year investigation that began in 2015 and continued until 2018.

Read more: Fallen football chiefs Sepp Blatter, Michel Platini face fraud trails

The two are being tried for a $2.08 million payment made to Platini in 2011 when he was president of UEFA, the governing body of European soccer.

According to the court, the former French football star “sent to FIFA in 2011 an allegedly fraudulent invoice for a (claimed) debt still existing for his participation as a FIFA consultant from 1998 to 2002.”

Read more: Platini and Blatter fraud trial set for June

Both he and Blatter, the retired Swiss football official, might face up to five years in prison.

Each has been charged with fraud and document fabrication. Blatter is charged with misappropriation and criminal mismanagement, and Platini is charged with participation in these offenses.

The trial will end on June 22, and a decision is anticipated on July 8.