Jérôme Valcke, the suspended secretary general of Fifa, faces a nine-year ban following an investigation into his conduct by the organisation’s ethics committee.
Fifa released a statement which said: “The chairman of the investigatory chamber of the ethics committee, Dr Cornel Borbély, has concluded his investigation into the activities of the currently suspended Fifa secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, and handed over the respective report together with recommendations to the adjudicatory chamber of the ethics committee which is chaired by Mr Hans-Joachim Eckert.
“At the same time, Dr Borbély requested an extension of the suspension of Mr Valcke from all football-related activities for a further 45 days. The suspension imposed on Mr Valcke on 7 October 2015 for a duration of 90 days will end today, 5 January 2016, at midnight.
“In his final report, the chairman of the investigatory chamber of the ethics committee recommended imposing a sanction of a nine-year ban and a fine of 100,000 Swiss francs [£67,000] on Mr Valcke for alleged violation of the general rules of conduct, loyalty, confidentiality, duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting, conflicts of interest, offering and accepting gifts and other benefits and general obligation to collaborate.
“Until a formal decision is taken by the adjudicatory chamber of the ethics committee, Mr Valcke is presumed innocent.”
Fifa’s ethics committee announced in October that Valcke, who had already been put on leave over allegations concerning the sale of World Cup tickets, had been provisionally banned for 90 days, accused of “misuse of expenses and other infringements of Fifa’s rules and regulations”.
Valcke, who has “unequivocally denied” any wrongdoing, was long seen as Sepp Blatter’s right-hand man and was responsible for overseeing Fifa’s commercial contracts and its showpiece tournaments.
The latest developments follow the imposition of eight-year bans on the Fifa president Blatter and his one-time heir apparent, Michel Platini.
Both men were cleared of corruption charges but found guilty of a series of other breaches including a conflict of interest and dereliction of duty over a 2m Swiss francs (£1.35m) “disloyal payment” from Blatter to Platini, the Uefa president, in 2011.
(Published by The Guardian - January 5, 2016)