Second Swiss Case Against Valcke Has Qatari Connection

(ATR) Swiss prosecutors announce that a second criminal proceeding against former FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke also includes the Qatari president of the high-profile football club Paris Saint-Germain.

The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) says that Nasser Al-Khelaifi -- who is also the CEO of Qatar-owned BeIN Media Group -- as well as Valcke and an unnamed "businessman in the sports rights sector" are suspected of bribery, fraud, criminal mismanagement and forgery of a document.

Valcke is suspected of accepting "undue advantages" from the unnamed businessman in the awarding of media rights for the next four World Cups and from Al-Khelaifi for media rights to the 2026 and 2030 editions.

The proceeding was opened on March 20, 2017 but was only revealed by the OAG on Thursday. It was launched in large part due to information uncovered in another ongoing proceeding against Valcke on suspicion of various acts of criminal mismanagement that began in March 2016.

The OAG says Valcke was interviewed in Switzerland on Thursday as a suspect in the new investigation.

Valcke had appeared a day earlier before the Court of Arbitration for Sport as part of his appeal of a 10-year football-related ban imposed by FIFA.

FIFA had initially banned him for 12 years in early 2016 but FIFA’s appeal committee reduced it to 10 years in June 2016. FIFA’s ethics chief had found Valcke guilty of several offenses, including misconduct over the sale of World Cup tickets and abuse of travel expenses.

Valcke denied any wrongdoing and filed an appeal with CAS in February of this year, calling for the ban "to be lifted definitively".

Written by Gerard Farek

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