A FIFA tribunal banned former secretary general Jerome Valcke for 12 years for misconduct ranging from helping a World Cup ticket scam to fixing a television deal and destroying evidence
Former FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke. Pic/Getty Images
Zurich: A FIFA tribunal banned former secretary general Jerome Valcke for 12 years on Friday for misconduct ranging from helping a World Cup ticket scam to fixing a television deal and destroying evidence.
Former FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke. Pic/Getty Images
ADVERTISEMENT
The former right hand man to FIFA's president Sepp Blatter was also fined 100,000 Swiss francs ($100,000). The 55-year-old Frenchman had denied any wrongdoing after he was implicated in the sale of black market sales of tickets for the 2014 World Cup.
A FIFA statement said however that 'several other acts of potential misconduct' during his nearly 10-years in office arose as the ethics committee investigated the accusations.
Abuse of policies
It highlighted "in particular abuse of the FIFA travel expenses policies and regulations, cases involving related-parties issues and the sale of TV and other media rights, and the destruction of evidence". FIFA said a sports marketing firm 'gained an undue advantage from the selling of FIFA World Cup tickets' and that Valcke had helped.
"Not only did Valcke do nothing to stop these activities, he even encouraged the persons responsible to do so. Furthermore, Valcke repeatedly encouraged them to breach an agreement concluded between FIFA and the sports marketing firm."
The statement also highlighted a contract for the sale of television and media rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in the Caribbean. Valcke attempted to grant the rights to "a third party for a fee far below their actual market value and had taken concrete preparatory action in this regard".
Valcke was also found to have "deliberately" tried to obstruct the FIFA investigation by "attempting to delete several files relevant to the investigation". FIFA said Valcke and his family travelled "at FIFA's expense for sightseeing as well as choose private flights for his trips without any business rationale".
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
