FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke, the top deputy to President Sepp Blatter, said on Friday that he expected his career at global football’s governing body "to end along with his boss’s when a special election for a new leader is held in February," according to Sam Borden of the N.Y. TIMES. Valcke, who has been FIFA’s secretary general and Blatter’s "trusted executive since 2007, has resisted calls to resign in light of allegations of corruption at the organization, but he said on Friday that he anticipated FIFA’s next president would name a new secretary general." Valcke: "If I would be the next FIFA president, I would take a new general secretary, so yes, whoever becomes president should have a new general secretary because it is the most important relationship for any organization." Asked what he would do when he leaves FIFA, Valcke, 54, said, "What I want to do with my life is just a question about me and myself" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/24). REUTERS' Mike Collett wrote Valcke "had a chequered career at FIFA which he originally joined in 2003 as marketing director but was fired in December 2006 for his part in botched sponsorship negotiations with credit card rivals MasterCard and Visa." He was dismissed when a N.Y. court ruled that FIFA had "lied repeatedly" during World Cup sponsorship negotiations with MasterCard, but eight months later he was re-hired as secretary general. He "has since had responsibility for, among other things, organising the World Cup" (REUTERS, 7/24).
