FIFA’s Jérôme Valcke ‘Released From Duties’ After World Cup Ticket Claims

Jérôme Valcke denies allegations that he sought to profit from ticket sales for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Photograph: Sebastien Bozon/AFP/Getty Images

• Allegations that Valcke agreed to sell tickets above face value
• FIFA has requested formal investigation by Ethics Committee into Valcke

Football’s crisis-hit world governing body has dramatically released its secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, Sepp Blatter’s right-hand man since 2007, from his duties “until further notice” in the wake of allegations involving the resale of World Cup tickets. FIFA, in turmoil since a series of dramatic arrests in May and subsequent US corruption charges, said in a statement that Valcke had been put on leave after being implicated in a scheme to sell World Cup tickets above face value and share in the profits. He has denied the allegations.

“FIFA today announced that its secretary general Jérôme Valcke has been put on leave and released from his duties effective immediately until further notice,” it said. “Further, FIFA has been made aware of a series of allegations involving the secretary general and has requested a formal investigation by the FIFA ethics committee.”

The Guardian, UK report continues:

Valcke, long seen as Blatter’s fixer and responsible for overseeing FIFA’s commercial contracts and its showpiece tournaments, has been under mounting pressure in recent months. The organization is determined to be seen as cleaning up its act, in the midst of an internal reform process headed by the former International Olympic Committee executive François Carrard that has been derided by critics.

Valcke was believed to have been flying to Moscow, one of the host cities for the 2018 World Cup, when the allegations were aired at a dramatic briefing in Zurich by a ticketing partner of FIFA’s official hospitality agency Match. FIFA’s investigation will be led by Cornel Borbély, the head of the investigatory arm of the ethics committee.

The allegations have been made by a consultant at a company that struck a deal with FIFA to sell tickets for the 2014 World Cup but the contract was cancelled. The claims will increase the pressure on Valcke, who is fighting on a number of fronts amid the continuing meltdown at FIFA. Documents seen by the Guardian appear to suggest that Valcke was to be the beneficiary of an agreement to sell the tickets at inflated prices. However, the documents are incomplete, selective and could easily be open to other interpretations.

One email from the consultant, Benny Alon, apparently sent to Valcke, states in reference to the sale of tickets to group matches at the 2014 World Cup: “we made US$114,000 each on Germany”. However, it has been suggested that no tickets were actually sold.

Valcke denies he made any money out of the deal struck by FIFA with JB Sports Marketing, the company for whom Alon worked. It is understood Valcke’s position is that, while there was a FIFA contract with JB Marketing to sell tickets, it later became clear FIFA was not in a position to sell these tickets and that, when it became apparent that tickets were being offered at above face value, Valcke warned Alon about the need to adhere to the regulations and ended up terminating the contract.

The emails seen by the Guardian appear to raise questions over the fact that Valcke was told in April 2013 that tickets were being sold at more than four times face value and yet it was eight months before the contract was revised. Among other allegations unsupported by any documents, made at a briefing in Zurich by Alon, an American-Israeli, is that in April 2013 he withdrew around US$250,000 in cash to deliver to Valcke at FIFA HQ as a downpayment on a deal for tickets.

In an email, seen by the Guardian, apparently in response to a suggestion from Alon that they should meet, Valcke said he was too busy to meet. The email makes no mention of money or payment. Alon alleges that he returned to the bank the next day, with the cash in a suitcase, to return the money.

Ticket sales for the 2014 World Cup are at the centre of the latest allegations surrounding FIFA. Photograph: brazilphotopress/Demotix/Corbis

JB Sports Marketing had been involved with FIFA World Cups since the 1990 tournament in Italy and signed a 2010 deal to sell 8,750 tickets for Brazil 2014.

The contract, signed in 2010 by Valcke and JB Sports Marketing’s lawyer Heinz Schild and seen by the Guardian, guarantees tickets to 12 of the best matches but also confirms they must accept 12 of the worst matches. JB Sports Marketing was represented at the briefing in Zurich by Schild, a director of the company. Asked whether the company had behaved improperly in any way under Swiss law, he said: “Absolutely not.” Alon alleges that at a March 2013 meeting at Valcke’s office, after he said he would be looking at a US$300,000 loss on the 12 worst matches, the FIFA secretary general offered to ensure he got tickets for the best Germany and Brazil matches. Another email shows that the new tickets were allocated accordingly.

In an email Alon claims was sent to Valcke in April 2013, Alon details how much was being made on each ticket. Fifty tickets for a second-round match in São Paulo with a face value of US$230 sell for US$1,300 each and 600 tickets for Germany’s first-round game sell for three times their US$190 face value. “We are doing better then [sic] the NY Stock Exchange,” writes Alon.

The deal ultimately collapsed, claims Alon, because FIFA realized it should not have agreed to sell him the tickets as the deal did not comply with Brazilian law.

Valcke wrote in an email to Alon in December 2013: “You, we, have no choice. Otherwise the deal will be canceled by FIFA or we all face as individuals criminal offense. It is not a joke. It is very serious.

“So avoid too much advice. Just do it if I may say using a slogan from one company involved. All is clear and has to be finalized now. Thanks. Jérôme.” Valcke is understood to claim that this email was discussing the termination because of Alon’s conduct.

JB Sports Marketing was asked to sign the contract through Match, FIFA’s official licensed hospitality and ticketing partner, instead. Valcke, already under pressure over what he knew about a US$10m payment from the South African FA to an account controlled by the disgraced former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, has agreed to leave FIFA next February.

He will step down at the same congress at which a new president will be chosen to succeed Sepp Blatter.

The 79-year-old Swiss agreed to stand down days after his re-election in May, amid a mounting crisis precipitated by a wave of arrests and indictments by the US Department of Justice.

In what it said amounted to a “World Cup of fraud” 14 individuals, including nine FIFA officials, were charged with offences including racketeering and money laundering.

“Whoever becomes the new FIFA president should have a new secretary general – it is the most important relationship for any organization,” he said in July. “As the head of the administration I can be proud of what FIFA has done. The administration, I don’t think, has ever been part of any of the stories which are around FIFA, including all the commercial agreements we have signed from 2007 to 2015.”

The extradition of the former FIFA vice-president Eugenio Figueredo to the US to face corruption charges has been approved by Swiss authorities. The Uruguayan was one of the seven officials from football’s world governing body arrested at the request of US authorities in a dawn raid in Zurich in May.