FIFA was reeling from a fresh scandal on Thursday as secretary-general Jerome Valcke was dramatically suspended over allegations of involvement in a ticketing scam and placed under investigation.
Valcke, the right-hand man of outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter, was immediately relieved of his duties as the latest wave of sleaze crashed into world soccer’s governing body.
Meanwhile, Switzerland ruled on Thursday that a former FIFA vice president should be extradited to the US in a corruption probe, the first suspect facing a forced transfer over the graft allegations that have shaken world soccer.
Valcke “has been put on leave and released from his duties effective immediately until further notice,” a FIFA statement said. “Further, FIFA has been made aware of a series of allegations involving the secretary-general and has requested a formal investigation by the FIFA Ethics Committee.”
The 54-year-old French official had already been forced to deny involvement in a US$10 million payment to South Africa in the wake of corruption allegations that forced Blatter’s resignation earlier this year.
The latest claims against Valcke relate to accusations of his involvement in a scam to sell FIFA World Cup tickets at vastly inflated prices and take a slice of the profits.
The claims were made by Benny Alon, an American-Israeli consultant at a company which had a deal with FIFA to sell tickets at the 2014 World Cup. The contract was subsequently canceled.
In a strongly-worded statement issued by Valcke’s US-based attorney, the official decried the allegations as false.
“Jerome Valcke unequivocally denies the fabricated and outrageous accusations by Benny Alon of alleged wrongdoing in connection with the sale of World Cup tickets,” the statement from New York attorney Barry Berke said.
The statement said Valcke “never received or agreed to accept any money or anything else of value from Mr Alon.”
All dealings between Valcke and Alon’s company had been cleared by FIFA’s legal department, the statement added.
FIFA has been embroiled in a major corruption scandal since the arrest of seven of its officials attending a congress in May in Zurich, Switzedrland, to elect a new president.
They are among 14 people charged by US authorities over more than US$150 million in bribes given for television and marketing deals.
Despite the arrests, the election went ahead with Blatter winning a fifth mandate, although the 79-year-old then announced he would be standing down with a new election scheduled for February.
In the latest step in the probe, Switzerland ruled that former FIFA vice president Eugenio Figueredo should be extradited to the US.
Figueredo, a Uruguayan national, has been charged by the US Department of Justice with using his influence to solicit millions of dollars in bribes from sports marketing firms. He was among the seven FIFA officials arrested in May.
One of those arrested, Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands, agreed to extradition and was sent to the US in July, but the remaining six had challenged a transfer to US courts.
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