The scandal surrounding FIFA "took a fresh turn" on Wednesday after General Secretary Jérôme Valcke was sacked by the governing body for the second time in his career, according to Matt Cotton of the LONDON TIMES. The 55-year-old Frenchman, who served as Sepp Blatter's top aide, "was already banned from football-related activity" having been suspended on Sept. 17 for an alleged series of breaches of FIFA's ethics code. FIFA announced, "The FIFA emergency committee decided, on January 9, to dismiss Jérôme Valcke from the position of FIFA secretary general with immediate effect. The duties of the secretary general will continue to be assumed by the acting secretary general, Dr. Markus Kattner." Valcke has now been sacked twice by FIFA, having been appointed in '03 as marketing director. His first tenure lasted until Dec. '06, before he was "dismissed for his part in botched sponsorship negotiations with credit card firms." Valcke was implicated in misleading MasterCard, a World Cup sponsor, during contract renewal talks and FIFA eventually signed with Visa, "provoking a legal suit from MasterCard" that was settled for $90M (LONDON TIMES, 1/13). REUTERS' Joshua Franklin reported the FIFA Emergency Committee "gave no reason for the dismissal" but Valcke's lawyer in N.Y., Barry Berke, was "defiant on behalf of his client." Berke said, "He remains confident that he will be fully vindicated and history will recognize all of his contributions to the sport he loves." Valcke was "once one of the most powerful men in FIFA" and responsible for ensuring that preparations for the last two World Cups were completed in time (REUTERS, 1/13). The BBC reported sources close to FIFA said that a "culmination of factors" made his departure "inevitable." Abuse of expenses and misuse of FIFA's hired private jet "are believed to be just two of the reasons" behind the sacking of Valcke. However, "it is believed other significant factors were taken into account." For example, Valcke's role in an alleged $10M bribe -- made by South Africa to Jack Warner -- "has also come under scrutiny, although the Frenchman has denied any wrongdoing" (BBC, 1/13).
EX-GUATEMALA EXEC ARRESTED: The BBC reported in a separate piece police in Guatemala have arrested a former head of the country's football federation as part of a major U.S. corruption investigation into FIFA. The suspect, Brayan Jimenez, "had been on the run since last month," when the U.S. issued an arrest warrant for 16 Latin American football officials. He was "detained at a block of flats in the capital, Guatemala City." His lawyer said that he "would not fight the extradition request." His lawyer, Francisco Garcia Gudiel, said, "He will prove his innocence in the courts of the United States." U.S. prosecutors say Jimenez and former Guatemalan Football Federation Secretary-General Hector Trujillo took a "six-digit bribe" to sell the TV rights to qualifying matches for the 2018 World Cup (BBC, 1/13).
