Federation Internationale de Football Association opens proceedings against former President Blatter over salary and bonus payments

Federation Internationale de Football Association also will look into whether Kattner leaked information to reporters about Gianni Infantino, who replaced Blatter as the president of world soccer’s governing body.

World football’s governing body revealed in June, after finance director Kattner was sacked, that he, Blatter and Valcke agreed to pay themselves bonuses worth tens of millions of dollars.

NEWS BRIEF Sepp Blatter, the disgraced former Federation Internationale de Football Association chief, and two of his top deputies, are being investigated by soccer’s governing body, months after they were suspended after it was revealed the men had gifted themselves millions of dollars in secret bonuses and salary increases.

The investigatory chamber of FIFA’s ethics committee said on Friday that it was investigating all three on suspicion of bribery and corruption, conflict of interest for accepting gifts and for violation of “loyalty” under the general code of conduct.

“The investigatory chamber will investigate possible violations of the FIFA Code of Ethics (FCE) in the context of salaries and bonuses paid to Mr”.

The ban was imposed for ethics violations related to a payment of 2 million Swiss francs that Federation Internationale de Football Association made to then European soccer boss Michel Platini with Blatter’s approval in 2011 for work done a decade earlier.

Blatter is suspended for six years, while Valcke is serving a 10-year ban.

At the time sources close to Kattner, who was acting as deputy general secretary and was sacked with immediate effect a week ago, insist that however sizeable his compensation and bonuses package, everything was above board and did not in any way constitute illegal activity.

The need for him to keep doing that can not be underestimated as the earlier Swiss and United States investigations into FIFA’s wider corrupt practices over the last decade or so continue, and the Swiss are still looking at the 2010 decision to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russian Federation and Qatar respectively.

Swiss attorney general Michael Lauber also opened criminal proceedings against Blatter in September 2015, and against Valcke in March.

Kattner’s contract was redrafted in May 2015, days after the US and Swiss federal investigations were revealed by police raids on Zurich’s Baur au Lac hotel.

This information has been passed onto the Swiss authorities as they appear to breach corporate governance laws.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which typically has the final word in major sport disputes, is expected to deliver a verdict in Blatter’s appeal within weeks. They have previously denied wrongdoing.

Kattner, who was Valcke’s deputy, has not been sanctioned before but was unceremoniously sacked in May.

Webb, who had been close to Blatter, was among those arrested in a dawn raid at a Zurich luxury hotel in May previous year by Swiss police acting on a U.S. warrant.