CAS rejects Valcke appeal against 10-year ban
The French official was found guilty of breaching a number of football’s governing body’s ethics codes and will continue to serve his punishment
Former FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke will have to serve a 10-year ban from all football activities after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected his appeal.
The 57-year-old has been ordered to serve the suspension and pay a fine of 100,000 Swiss francs (£76,000/$100,000) after CAS deemed FIFA’s punishment “wholly proportionate” in a ruling on Friday.
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Valcke had called for the punishment to be lifted definitively when he launched an appeal against his punishment in February of last year.
The French official was initially suspended by FIFA in 2015 after he was implicated in a scheme to sell World Cup tickets above face value and claim a share in the profits.
FIFA’s Appeal Committee issued his 10-year ban and fine in June 2016 after finding Valcke guilty of a number of breaches of the organisation’s ethics code during his time as general secretary, beginning in 2007.
As well as the World Cup ticket scandal, Valcke was punished for violations of the ethics code “in relation to his travel expenses, his involvement in a transaction between FIFA and a software development company, an offer of an improper benefit to the regional football union and his failure to cooperate with the FIFA investigation”.
CAS agreed with FIFA that the offences were “cumulatively of a serious degree of gravity” and that the sanctions were therefore fully justified.
Valcke joined FIFA as director of marketing and TV in 2003 before being released three years later following a sponsor dispute.
He was then appointed general secretary in 2007 upon the recommendation of president Sepp Blatter, who is serving a six-year ban from football in relation to an illicit payment made to former UEFA president Michel Platini in 2011.
Valcke was put on leave in September 2015 following a US-led investigation into alleged widespread corruption within football’s governing body.
He was dismissed by FIFA in January 2016 after an Ethics Committee probe recommended a nine-year ban and CHF100,000 fine. The Appeal Committee extended the ban to 10 years when passing their decision five months later.