Jerome Valcke tried to secure a pay-off of several million pounds from FIFA just a week before he was suspended, it can be disclosed.
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Valcke, FIFA’s secretary general, was suspended by the world governing body on Thursday pending an investigation into allegations he was implicated in a World Cup tickets scheme. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The Frenchman had announced in July he would leave the organisation along with outgoing president Sepp Blatter in February.
Sepp Blatter emailed FIFA staff last night after Valcke’s suspension: https://t.co/B0JwvotBgP
— Martyn Ziegler (@martynziegler) September 18, 2015
Sources close to FIFA have said that Valcke was keen for some time to make an early exit from the governing body. Valcke’s contract had three years to run and it is understood Valcke wanted to be paid out in full for the remainder of the deal but was unsuccessful in negotiating a payoff.
In 2007, his predecessor Urs Linsi was given a pay-off worth £3.6 million (Dh21m). Meanwhile, Blatter has emailed FIFA staff saying the organisation can recover from this “difficult situation”.
Blatter said: “FIFA is confident of its ability to recover from the present difficult situation and restore its reputation for the good of the game.”
Valcke was suspended after emails and documents were released which suggested he was aware that a Swiss marketing company were selling off World Cup and Confederation Cup tickets for almost five times the face value.
The emails and documents show Valcke signed off contracts with Swiss firm JB Sports Marketing AG for category one tickets for a number of matches. The company also claims it entered into a profit-sharing agreement with Valcke.
