Advertisement

Sepp Blatter's former right-hand man at Fifa convicted of corruption

Jerome Valcke, former FIFA Secretary General, arrives at the Court of Arbitration for Sport - AP
Jerome Valcke, former FIFA Secretary General, arrives at the Court of Arbitration for Sport - AP

Sepp Blatter’s former right-hand man has been convicted of corruption but the president of Paris Saint-Germain was acquitted following a trial in Switzerland.

Jerome Valcke, Blatter’s long-serving secretary general at Fifa, was found guilty of forging documents linked to World Cup broadcasting deals in Italy and Greece but was cleared of accepting bribes and of criminal mismanagement while in post between 2007-15.

Valcke, who prosecutors wanted jailed for three years, was given a 120-day suspended sentence and ordered to pay Fifa €1.75 million (£1.58m) in restitution by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona.

Co-defendant Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, the PSG president and a member of Uefa’s executive committee, was cleared of a single charge of inciting Valcke to commit aggravated criminal mismanagement.

That charge was linked to Valcke’s use of a vacation home in Italy around the time Fifa renewed World Cup rights in the Middle East and North Africa for Qatari broadcaster beIN Media Group, which is led by Al-Khelaïfi.

“Today’s verdict is a total vindication,” Al-Khelaïfi said after being cleared. “It restores my faith in the rule of law and in due process, after four years of baseless allegations, fictitious charges and constant smears of my reputation.”

An additional criminal complaint alleging bribery against Al-Khelaïfi was dropped before the case came to court after Fifa withdrew it. An undisclosed settlement was understood to have been reached between Al-Khelaïfi and the governing body.

A third defendant, Greek marketing agency executive Dinos Deris, was acquitted on charges of active corruption with Valcke and of inciting him.

Valcke’s conviction, albeit on a minor charge, is the first secured by Swiss prosecutors who began investigating former Fifa president Blatter and other football officials six years ago.

Valcke’s 10-year ban from all football-related activities, imposed by Fifa, was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2018.

Both he and Al-Khelaïfi face further investigations, the former in Switzerland over a $1 million Fifa payment to the Trinidad & Tobago Football Association for which Blatter is also being probed, and the latter in France over bids by Doha for athletics’ World Championships.