FIFA fires secretary general Jerome Valcke

Those breaches related to his alleged involvement in a plan to profit from World Cup ticket sales.

Valcke is alleged to have been linked to a scheme that meant to sell tickets for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil at above their face value prior to the contract being cancelled before any were sold.

Temporary suspended FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke has been dismissed from his post, a statement from FIFA announced on Wednesday.

“Valcke is therefore no longer the Secretary General of Federation Internationale de Football Association”.

Cornel Borbély, chief investigator for Fifa’s independent ethics committee, had requested that Mr Valcke be fined Sf100,000 after completing an inquiry into the Frenchman’s conduct, Fifa’s watchdog said last week.

On January 6, the adjudicatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert, extended the suspension of Jerome Valcke by 45 days, at the request of the investigatory chamber.

Markus Kattner is acting secretary general of a body now fighting scandals on several fronts.

The former right-hand man to suspended president Sepp Blatter has denied the allegations, but the federation has made a decision to take action against him nonetheless.

Valcke is no stranger to controversy having also been sacked in 2006 over a battle with credit card sponsors Mastercard.

Blatter is under criminal investigation in Switzerland for criminal mismanagement over a two million Swiss francs ($2 million/1.8 million euro) payment to Federation Internationale de Football Association vice president Michel Platini.

He was found to have negotiated with Mastercard’s rival Visa in violation of the former company’s right of first negotiation, which cost Federation Internationale de Football Association $90 million (£61.3 million) in a settlement.