Former UEFA President, Michel Platini, is believed to have filed a complaint with the French authorities after his computer was hacked as part of a spying operation, which has prompted Paris police cyber-crime units to launch three separate investigations.
Platini was understood to have filed a complaint about an “attack on an automated data system” and the “theft and violation of confidentiality of correspondence” through the French legal practice Temime.
He is thought to have been hacked shortly before he was to speak to French police about corruption claims in connection with the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Platini is said to have given evidence to French authorities at his home in Cassis Bouches-du- Rhône early in the New Year.
In November, shortly before the 2022 FIFA World Cup began, hosts, Qatar, was accused of launching a spy operation which targeted individuals connected with the original award of tournament in 2010.
“These baseless allegations are part of a coordinated, underhanded campaign to damage Qatar’s reputation,” a Qatar Government spokesman told insidethegames.
Platini was a member of the FIFA Executive Committee at the time of the vote for the 2022 World Cup and is widely believed to have voted for Qatar.
Investigations by the Sunday Times newspaper and the Bureau of Investigative journalism, a non-governmental organisation also based in London, suggested that more than 100 individuals from the world of politics and sport had been targeted, including Platini and French Senate member, Nathalie Goulet.
Former German Football Association President, Theo Zwanziger, and Sunil Gulati, the ex-head of the United States Soccer Federation, were also hacked by the group.
French investigative journalist, Yann Philippin, had his personal data stolen in early 2020 after his work on French legal aspects of the case. — insidethegames
