Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, once the chiefs of world and European football, were cleared on Friday over a suspected fraudulent payment that shook the sport and torpedoed their time at the top.

Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court in the southern city of Bellinzona acquitted the pair in a trial following a mammoth investigation that began in 2015. Former FIFA president Blatter, 86, and Platini, 67, listened in silence as the clerk read out the judgement which rejected the prosecution’s request for a suspended prison sentence of a year and eight months.