Former FIFA secretary general Valcke banned for 12 years

Former FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has been banned for 12 years for a number of offences including his part in a World Cup tickets scandal and using a private jet for personal reasons.

The Frenchman, who was formally dismissed last month, has been banned from all football-related activity for 12 years and fined 100,000 Swiss francs (almost $102,000) by FIFA's ethics committee.

Valcke also negotiated to sell World Cup television rights for below their true value, according to a statement from the ethics committee.

The statement said: "Amongst other things, the adjudicatory chamber found that a sports marketing firm had gained an undue advantage from the selling of FIFA World Cup tickets.

"In this respect, not only did Mr Valcke do nothing to stop these activities, he even encouraged the persons responsible to do so. Furthermore, Mr Valcke repeatedly encouraged them to breach an agreement concluded between FIFA and the sports marketing firm.

"Moreover, by travelling at FIFA's expense purely for sightseeing reasons as well as repeatedly choosing private flights for his trips over commercial flights without any business rationale for doing so, Mr Valcke gained an advantage for himself and relatives.

"In doing so, Mr Valcke acted against FIFA's best interests and caused considerable financial damage to FIFA."

It added: "Concerning the issue of TV and media rights for the Caribbean, it was found that Mr Valcke attempted to grant the TV and media rights for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups to a third party for a fee far below their actual market value and had taken concrete preparatory action in this regard.

"Furthermore, it was found that Mr Valcke deliberately tried to obstruct the ongoing proceedings against him by attempting to delete or deleting several files and folders relevant to the investigation, despite being aware of his duty to preserve all data and to collaborate in order to establish the facts of the case."