By Andrew Warshaw
February 15 – As he begins a 12-year ban from football, in contrast to flying round the world and staying in luxury hotels as FIFA’s most senior day to day administrator, Jerome Valcke’s lawyer insists the organisation’s former number two has done “absolutely nothing wrong” despite being punished for abusing FIFA’s money and a host of other misdemeanours.
Last Friday Valcke was found guilty of serious misconduct including underselling TV and media rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, using FIFA’s funds for private travel and destroying evidence. Investigators had originally recommended a nine-year ban having already extended an initial 90-day suspension by another 45 days to process the case. But ethics judges led by Hans-Joachim Eckert concluded nine years was not a strong enough punishment and banned Valcke for three years longer.
But a statement from Valcke’s legal team says the entire ethics process needed a thorough examination.
“The FIFA ethics committee has shown that it is not a credible, independent or objective decision-making body,” said a hard-hitting statement in defence of the man who cross-crossed the globe, often trying to make sure World Cup preparations were on track.
“In reaching an entirely unsupported, unjust and politically motivated decision, it wholly ignored the uncontroverted and exculpatory evidence that had been presented to it.”
In imposing the 12-year ban on Friday, a FIFA statement said: “Amongst other things, the adjudicatory chamber found that a sports marketing firm had gained an undue advantage from the selling of World Cup tickets. In this respect, not only did Mr Valcke do nothing to stop these activities, he even encouraged the persons responsible to do so.
“By travelling 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, Mr Valcke gained an advantage for himself and relatives. In doing so, Mr Valcke acted against FIFA’s best interests and caused considerable financial damage to FIFA.”
But Valcke’s lawyers fiercely dispute this version of events.
“Mr Valcke is confident that when all the facts come out, it will be clear that he did absolutely nothing wrong in carrying out his duties for the good of FIFA and the sport,” the statement added.
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