Nine-year ban in sight for suspended FIFA secretary general

On the day when the provisional 90-days ban handed to Sepp Blatter’s right hand and FIFA secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, on 5 October 2015 was due to expire, the investigatory chamber of the FIFA ethics committee handed its report and recommendations regarding Valcke’s alleged misconduct over to the adjudicatory chamber. 

In the report, chairman Cornel Borbély, recommends that Valcke is given a nine-year ban plus a 100.000 CHF fine for his behavior, which includes the alleged violation of a total of nine points.

“In his final report, the chairman of the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee recommended imposing a sanction of a nine-year ban and a fine of CHF 100,000 on Mr Valcke for alleged violation of the general rules of conduct, loyalty, confidentiality, duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting, conflicts of interest, offering and accepting gifts and other benefits and general obligation to collaborate,” said a FIFA statement issued on Tuesday.

In September 2015, Valcke was put on an indefinite leave following reports that he had allegedly been involved in a World Cup 2014 ticket scam involving the reselling of tickets above face value and a profit-sharing plan. Valcke has also been linked to a $10m payment made in 2008 to then CONCACAF president Jack Warner, a payment allegedly made in exchange for a vote in favour of the South African World Cup 2010. In October 2015, his leave was followed up by a 90-days ban while the formal investigation into the allegations took place.

According to a statement from Valcke’s lawyers, Kramer Levin, Valcke has not been acting wrongfully.

“The investigatory chamber of the Fifa ethics committee has chosen to ignore Jérôme Valcke’s exemplary conduct and extraordinary contributions during his long tenure as secretary general. Today’s press release is nothing more than a self-serving public relations effort to wrongly attack Mr Valcke in a desperate attempt to try to prove that Fifa can police itself. Mr Valcke did absolutely nothing wrong as any independent and fair review of the facts would establish,” said the statement according to The Guardian.

Following the recommendation from the investigatory chamber of the FIFA ethics committee, Hans-Joachim Eckert, chairman of the adjudicatory arm, today stated that the adjudicatory chamber has decided to extend Valcke’s ban for 45-days while considering the recommendations from the investigation report.

Editor's note:

On 13 January 2015, FIFA announced that Jéröme Valcke was dismissed with immediate effect.