By Andrew Warshaw
January 13 – In an unpredecented move, FIFA has fired Jerome Valcke for the second time, finally bringing the curtain down on the career of its general secretary who for years took on the mantle of the organisation’s most senior day-to-day administrator and astute troubleshooter.
FIFA announced today that its emergency committee had decided to dismiss Sepp Blatter’s number two over the weekend.
Last week FIFA’s ethics committee opened formal proceedings against Valcke after investigators recommended a nine-year ban having already extended an initial 90-day suspension by another 45 days to process the case.
He is charged with accepting gifts, conflicts of interest, breaches of confidentiality and loyalty, and failing to cooperate with investigators.
Valcke, whose main duty was overseeing organisation of the World Cup, had already been relieved of his duties by the FIFA administration in September before the ethics case was opened when he was put on leave within hours of a FIFA ticketing partner alleging that he sought to profit from a black market deal relating to the Brazil World Cup.
Now he has been sacked a second time – less than a month after Blatter himself was banned for eight years – and whatever happens will not be returning even though had always been expected to leave after the election of a new president next February 26.
His second dismissal completes the downfall of FIFA’s two most prominent officials who traveled the globe on private jets, sometimes together, sometimes separately, and wined and dined with football powerbrokers worldwide.
“The employment relationship between FIFA and Jerome Valcke has … been terminated,” FIFA said in Wednesday’s brief statement.
No reason was given though Valcke has faced considerable scrutiny over being party to the infamous $10 million payment paid by South Africa, ostensibly as a donation to the African diaspora in the Caribbean as part of the country’s 2010 World Cup legacy programme but which ended up in the hands of disgraced former CONCACAF president Jack Warner who was recently banned for life.
The money is said to have been transferred in 2008 from a FIFA bank account following a request toValcke from the South African football authorities. Valcke, identified as having processed the transfer, has vehemently denied he did anything wrong insisting he strictly followed normal protocol.
His final suspension could, however, have more to do with the alleged “misuse of expenses and other infringements of FIFA’s rules and regulations” cited by investigators when calling for a nine-year ban.
Valcke’s efforts when it came to World Cup organisation cannot be denied, however, and FIFA’s statement, somewhat dismissively, failed to acknowledge his contribution in making sure both the 2010 and 2014 tournaments went ahead despite a series of logistical headaches.
His case was overshadowed in recent weeks by the turmoil that has engulfed both Blatter and Michel Platini, with criminal investigations carried out in both the United States and Switzerland. In one sense, Valcke, whose duties will continue to be carried out by Acting Secretary General Markus Kattner, has been sacked three times by FIFA.
He joined the organisation in 2003 as marketing director but was relieved of his duties three years later over a scandal involving FIFA’s long-time sponsorship partner Mastercard. He was found to have negotiated with Mastercard’s rival Visa, provoking a legal suit from MasterCard which was settled for $90 million.
A year later he became general secretary but now his association with all those he worked with has been severed for good.
Such is FIFA’s dysfunctional situation, however, that two members of the nine-strong emergency committee which fired Valcke are themselves suspended, Paraguay’s Juan Angel Napout and Alfredo Hawit of Honduras. A third, Spain’s Angel Villar Llona, standing in for Platini, has been sanctioned for failing to co-operate with the official investigation into the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid process.
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