April 29 – The seemingly on-off Swiss prosecution of Nasser Al-Khelaïfi (pictured), boss of beIN Media and president of Paris St Germain, has taken further twists this week with Swiss justice saying he will be tried in court in September. Al-Khelaïfi’s lawyers had already filed a request for the removal of ‘compromised’ federal prosecutors, as well as filing their own criminal complaint.
Al-Khelaïfi’s court case will begin September 14 in the federal criminal court of Bellinzona. He will be tried alongside former FIFA general secretary Jérôme Valcke and a Greek sports marketing executive understood to be Konstantinos Nteris (better known as Dinos Deris), the chief executive of TAF Sports.
The charges are of inciting Valcke to commit a crime with Al-Khelaïfi accused of having granting the use of a villa in Sardinia to Jérôme Valcke in exchange for the television rights for the 2026 and 2030 Football World Cups.
TAF Sports is accused of having given Valcke three payments totalling €1.25 million to ensure that MP & Silva won media rights in Italy for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups while
TAF was to receive media rights in Greece for the 2026 and 2030 Worlds as well as other tournaments.
Al-Khelaïfi has already faced a three-year investigation into charges of bribery in connection with media rights for the 2026 and 2030 World Cups. Those charges were dropped only for the Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber to open another case with a secondary technical charge that a beIN statement says “was suddenly created by the Public Prosecutor in December (some three years after the original charge), when it became clear that the primary case was flawed.”
It has been an ugly investigation with details of the case having been leaked to the press that prompted a criminal complaint from Al-Khelaïfi and the opening of an investigation for suspicion of breach of official secrecy.
The Swiss judiciary has assigned that investigation to an extraordinary Prosecutor outside of the Office of the Attorney General and is currently pending.
Meanwhile there has been the endless swirling suspicion regarding the integrity of Lauber and various undocumented and secret meetings with FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
Lauber was sanctioned by his own ethics body with an official statement leaving nothing to the imagination saying: “On several occasions, he did not speak the truth, acted unfairly, violated the Code of Conduct of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and obstructed the investigation of the AS-MPC. In addition, the Attorney General does not see how his actions are problematic and shows a poor understanding of his profession. The sum of the breaches of its obligations is substantial.”
Qatar-based beIN Media are the biggest buyers of sports rights globally while PSG is probably the world’s best funded club and the continual target of suspicion over financial fair play rules. Both are Qatar-owned and throw in the Qatar 2022 World Cup hosting, some huge targets come into view – rightly or wrongly. The targets certainly won’t go away, but neither will the accusations against them.
Al-Khelaïfi is currently at the legal sharp end of those suspicions.
Lawyers for Al-Khelaïfi said: “There appears to be a recurring theme regarding the Swiss prosecution’s cases, and our client’s case is no different. As we have said from day one, the prosecution’s recently-submitted secondary charge is manifestly artificial and lacks basis in law or fact. While hearing dates have recently been ear-marked, our client’s position has not changed in any way – this secondary case is completely unfounded, just like the primary case which was dropped.
“Further, and in the context of the findings against the Swiss Attorney General of lying and breach of conduct, we have requested the recusal of the prosecutors and also filed a criminal complaint in relation to the leaks – making it uncertain whether the case will proceed at all.”
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