FIFA on Thursday suspended Secretary General Jérôme Valcke "indefinitely, relieved him of his duties and ordered an internal ethics investigation," mere hours after e-mails were released that indicated he "sought to profit personally through the sale of a cache" of '14 World Cup tickets, according to Futterman & Robinson of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. World Cup hospitality package seller Benny Alon accused Valcke of "using him as a conduit to sell tickets at marked-up prices for his own gain." Alon said that he "was making the revelations now because he felt time was running out to seek financial compensation for tickets he said FIFA hadn’t properly delivered to his company." Documents show that Alon’s company, JB Sports Marketing, "signed a contract with FIFA in April 2010 that gave him the rights to buy no more than 8,750 tickets" for each of the '10, '14 and '18 World Cups. Alon said that Valcke offered in a March '13 meeting at FIFA HQ to "upgrade 2,400 tickets" in his '14 allotment "with tickets for more desirable games if he agreed to split what Mr. Alon said would amount to roughly" $4M from the sales. He said that Valcke "gave him permission to sell them above face value, even though that was prohibited by his deal with FIFA." Valcke has said that he "will leave FIFA with President Sepp Blatter" after a special election on Feb. 26 to decide Blatter’s successor (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9/18).
SHADY MOVES: ESPN FC's Gabrielle Marcotti noted it "was unclear who made the decision to suspend Valcke." The ethics committee "declined to confirm if an investigation of Valcke is ongoing" (ESPNFC.com, 9/17). REUTERS' Hosenball & Rosenberg noted Alon’s allegations "come on top of ongoing probes by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Swiss Attorney General’s Office into corruption at FIFA." Earlier this week, U.S. and Swiss authorities said that they "were expanding the investigations and more arrests were expected." Valcke currently "faces no charges in either the U.S. or Swiss investigations" (REUTERS, 9/17). In N.Y., Borden & Ruiz note Valcke has been "essentially acting as the top deputy" to Blatter for eight years. The current move "was not the first time that Mr. Valcke had departed FIFA after having been caught up in financial controversy." He spent three years as FIFA Marketing Dir, "but was fired" in '06 after a N.Y. judge "ruled that he and others had lied repeatedly in negotiations with MasterCard and Visa over a sponsorship deal" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/18).
