Banned official under scrutiny
ZURICH: Swiss prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Jerome Valcke, the banned former Fifa secretarygeneral, and Nasser AlKhelaifi, the chief executive of Qatar’s beIN Media, over World Cup broadcasting deals.
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) said yesterday it suspected Valcke accepted ‘‘undue advantages’’ in connection with the award of media rights for the 2026 and 2030 competitions from AlKhelaifi.
Valcke was Sepp Blatter’s righthand man when the latter ran Fifa, the Swissbased world football body. AlKhelaifi is also president of French club Paris Saint Germain.
Barry Bercke, Valcke’s United States lawyer, declined to comment. BeIN Media denied any wrongdoing and said it was cooperating with officials.
‘‘Following a request by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland, the beIN Sports offices in BoulogneBillancourt were searched this morning,’’ read the beIN statement.
‘‘The employees on site cooperated with the authorities until the end of the search. beIN Media Group refutes all accusations made by OAG. The company will fully cooperate with the authorities and is confident as to the future developments of this investigation,’’ the statement concluded.
The OAG also said it was investigating an unnamed businessman in the sportsrights sector and said it had suspicions about bribery, fraud, criminal mismanagement and forgery among the three.
Prosecutors interviewed Valcke yesterday, while authorities in France, Greece, Italy and Spain searched properties in various locations, the OAG said.
In Greece, a judicial source said: ‘‘Today, prosecutors participated in searches at residences. The operation is led by Swiss authorities.
‘‘It is suspected that Jerome Valcke accepted undue advantages from a businessman in the sportsrights sector in connection with the award of media rights for certain countries at the Fifa World Cups in 2018, 2022, 2026 and 2030 and from Nasser AlKhelaifi in connection with the award of media rights for certain countries at the Fifa World Cups in 2026 and 2030,’’ the OAG said.
It had already said last year that Valcke was suspected of criminal mismanagement and other offences. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Valcke is serving a 10year ban from football after he was found guilty by Fifa’s former ethics judge, HansJoachim Eckert, of misconduct over the sale of World Cup tickets, abuse of travel expenses, attempting to sell TV rights below their market value and destruction of evidence.
After being sacked from his post in January 2016, he was initially banned for 12 years, reduced to 10 by Fifa’s own appeal committee last June. He has denied wrongdoing and is appealing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
AlKhelaifi heads the Qatari ownership of Paris St Germain which in August paid the world record transfer fee of ¤222 million ($NZ368 million) for Brazilian forward Neymar.
Fifa awarded Qatar the hosting of the 2022 World Cup after a vote in 2010.
Zurichbased Fifa has been trying to overhaul its operations in the wake of the worst crisis in its history, sparked in 2015 by the indictment in the United States of several dozen football officials on corruptionrelated charges. It said it fully supported the investigation by the OAG. — Reuters