Fifa bans Sepp Blatter’s former right hand man Jerome Valcke from football for 12 years
Former Fifa general secretary and right hand man to Sepp Blatter Jerome Valcke has been banned from football for 12 years.
Fifa's Ethics Committee found Valcke, 55, guilty of abusing expenses and attempting to sell TV rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups for "far below their market value".
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A former Blatter ally, Valcke was also accused of attempting to sabotage the investigation into his activities by deliberately destroying potentially incriminating information.
The Ethics Committee's investigatory chamber uncovered the misconduct after initially opening a probe into allegations Valcke had attempted to sell World Cup tickets above face value and then share in the profits.
The Swiss was found to have used Fifa expenses for his and his family's own "sightseeing reasons" as well as taking private jets in his Fifa role "without any business rationale for doing so".
In a statement Fifa said: "In doing so, Mr Valcke acted against Fifa’s best interests and caused considerable financial damage to Fifa, while his private and personal interests detracted him from his ability to properly perform his duties as the secretary general of Fifa.
"Furthermore, it was found that Mr Valcke deliberately tried to obstruct the ongoing proceedings against him by attempting to delete or deleting several files and folders relevant to the investigation, despite being aware of his duty to preserve all data and to collaborate in order to establish the facts of the case."