By Andrew Warshaw
February 12 – Jerome Valcke, for years Sepp Blatter’s right-hand man and his most senior day-to-day administrator, was sensationally banned from all football activities for 12 years today for serious misconduct including underselling TV and media rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, using FIFA’s money for private travel and destroying evidence.
Ethics investigators announced last month they had opened formal proceedings against the organisation’s general-secretary – already dismissed by FIFA’s own administration – over allegations related to sales of World Cup tickets. But during the investigations they uncovered other equally serious breaches.
Investigators had recommended a nine-year ban having already extended an initial 90-day suspension by another 45 days to process the case. But in a damning judgement, ethics judges led by Hans-Joachim Eckert concluded nine years was not a strong enough punishment and banned Valcke for three years longer.
“Valcke deliberately tried to obstruct the ongoing proceedings against him by attempting to delete or deleting several files, “an ethics committee statement said. “Among other things, the adjudicatory chamber found that a sports marketing firm had gained an undue advantage from the selling of World Cup tickets. “
Declaring Valcke did “nothing to stop these activities” the statement revealed he had also travelled “at FIFA’s expense purely for sightseeing reasons as well as repeatedly choosing private flights for his trips over commercial flights without any business rationale for doing so.”
Not only for himself apparently, but also his relatives.
“In doing so, Mr Valcke acted against FIFA’s best interests and caused considerable financial damage to Fifa, while his private and personal interests detracted him from his ability to properly perform his duties as the secretary general of FIFA.”
Whilst Valcke had been under scrutiny over alleged misconduct concerning previous World Cups, the bombshell disclosure that he was involved in malpractise regarding 2018 (Russia) and 2022 (Qatar) will cause shockwaves through the sport, given the ongoing investigation into the election process for both tournaments.
“Concerning the issue of TV and media rights for the Caribbean, it was found that Mr Valcke attempted to grant the TV and media rights for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups to a third party for a fee far below their actual market value and had taken concrete preparatory action in this regard.”
The revelations didn’t end there.
“Furthermore, it was found that Mr Valcke deliberately tried to obstruct the ongoing proceedings against him by attempting to delete or deleting several files and folders relevant to the investigation, despite being aware of his duty to preserve all data and to collaborate in order to establish the facts of the case.”
The sanction against Valcke, who was also fined SFr100,000, not only heaps further disgrace on the Frenchman but came just two weeks before the election to replace the equally tarnished Blatter, who is appealing against his eight-year ban for unrelated misdemeanours.
In a way, Valcke’s fall to earth is almost as surprising given that he seemed indispensable and always came across, in front of the media at least, as FIFA’s hard-working, reliable troubleshooter who got the organisation out of a series of scrapes, invariably when it came to World Cup organisers dragging their feet.
His fate was effectively sealed when he was placed on indefinite leave last September within hours of a FIFA ticketing partner alleging that he sought to profit from a black market deal relating to the Brazil World Cup.
The plan was never enacted and Valcke denied the allegations. He was later provisionally suspended for 90 days while FIFA’s ethics committee looked into the case, then dismissed by FIFA altogether.
Valcke had always been expected to leave after the election of a new president on February 26 but his 12-year ban completes the downfall of a man who wined and dined with footballing powerbrokers worldwide.
He had long 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, vehemently denied he did anything wrong insisting he strictly followed normal protocol.
He joined FIFA in 2003 as marketing director but was relieved of his duties three years later over a scandal involving 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 after that he became general secretary but now his association with all those he worked with has been severed for good.
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