By Andrew Warshaw
October 16 – Former FIFA number two Jerome Valcke, back in the firing line after months of relative silence, has strongly denied colluding with the boss of Paris St Germain and beIN Sports, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, over suspected corruption linked to 2026 and 2030 World Cup broadcasting rights.
Last week, Swiss federal prosecutors, who have been investigating Valcke for “various acts of criminal mismanagement”, announced they had also opened a criminal case against Al-Khelaifi alleging Valcke received “undue advantages” from the high-profile Qatari.
FIFA’s new-look ethics committee is looking into the issues raised by the Swiss Attorney General’s Office (OAG) but Valcke, who went to the Court of Arbitration last week to try and clear his name and have his 10-year ban from football scrapped even though he says he won’t be returning to the game, insists the latest accusations are false.
“I just want to say that it’s not true. I have never done that. I have never received anything in exchange for anything,” Valcke told French sports daily L’Equipe.
“I refute the accusations against me or Nasser. I have received nothing from Nasser, I can assure you. There was never any exchange between Nasser and I. Never.”
Valcke, FIFA’s secretary-general for eight years under Sepp Blatter, is serving his ban after he was found guilty by FIFA’s former ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert of misconduct over the sale of World Cup tickets, abuse of travel expenses, attempting to sell TV rights below their market value and destruction of evidence.
After being sacked from his post in January 2016, he was initially banned for 12 years, subsequently reduced to 10 by FIFA’s own appeal committee last June.
beIN Sports, formerly Al-Jazeera Sports, has become one of the most powerful broadcasters in world football, owning pan-regional broadcast rights across the Middle East and North Africa including for Champions League and European Championship matches. It also has channels in the US and France.
The company has already put out a statement in which it said it “refutes all allegations” by the Swiss OAG but tongues seem certain to start wagging in football’s corridors of power especially since Al-Khelaifi, as boss of PSG, is a member of the executive committee of the European Club Association and an ECA delegate on the professional strategy council of UEFA.
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