FIFA Ethics Watchdog recommends 9 year ban for Jerome Valcke

Baku. 6 January. REPORT.AZ/ FIFA's ethics watchdog has recommended a nine-year ban for secretary-general Jerome Valcke over alleged corruption involving the sale of World Cup tickets, among the dozens of scandals rocking football's crisis-plagued governing body, Report informs referring to the Russian media.

Cornel Borbely, chief investigator for FIFA's independent ethics committee, requested that Valcke be fined 100,000 Swiss francs after completing an investigation into the Frenchman's conduct, the watchdog said in a statement.

The allegations against Valcke stem from former Israeli football player Benny Alon telling a news conference in September in Zurich that he agreed in 2013 to pay cash to Valcke to secure plum tickets for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

He said the plan was to then sell the tickets to fans at a markup and split the proceeds with Valcke, who was right-hand man to banned president Sepp Blatter. Alon said the deal fell through and he never paid the football official.

A statement issued on behalf of Valcke's U.S. lawyer said the ethics committee had "chosen to ignore Jerome 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."