Accused of having sold the rights to two other defendants, unbeknownst to FIFA and obtaining personal benefits. Also asked for 35 months on appeal for the former number 2 of Fifa, Jerome Valcke. They had been acquitted in the first instance
The Lausanne prosecutor’s office asked for 28 months of imprisonment for the president of beIN Media and PSG, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and 35 months for the former number 2 of FIFA, Jerome Valcke, as part of an appeal process on TV rights. Unlike the first instance, federal prosecutor Cristina Castellote did not ask for partial suspension in the fall of 2020. The two had been acquitted and Jerome Valcke had simply had to pay a fine regarding a different story.
Judgment
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Valcke, who was FIFA secretary general from 2007 to 2015, was cleared in 2020 of accepting bribes and aggravated criminal mismanagement, but Swiss prosecutors have challenged the sentence. The allegations were that he had sold the television rights for several football leagues to two other defendants, acting without FIFA’s knowledge and obtaining personal benefits, including the use of a luxury villa in Sardinia. Valcke was sentenced at the time to a suspended monetary penalty for falsifying documents while Al-Khelaifi and a third defendant, a Greek businessman, were exonerated of inciting Valcke to commit aggravated criminal mismanagement. The corruption allegations against Al-Khelaifi were dropped before the 2020 trial after an agreement between Al-Khelaifi himself and FIFA.
March 8, 2022 (change March 8, 2022 | 20:35)
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