BUSINESS MAN ACCUSED OF BRIBING EX-F IF A CHIEF

Nasser al- Khelaifi, a Qatari businessman who has grown to become one of the most prominent figures in soccer, was accused Thursday by Swiss authorities of bribing former FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke in return for lucrative World Cup soccer contracts. Al-Khelaifi, pictured, a leading figure in Qatar’s multibillion-dollar push into global sports, is chairman of the Paris Saint- Germain soccer team and chief executive of the beIN Media Group, a Doha-based television network that the Swiss accuse of bribing Valcke, who is serving a 10-year ban from world soccer. In its statement, the Swiss attorney general’s office said it opened a case in March against al-Khelaifi, Valcke and an unidentified businessman on suspicion of bribery, fraud and criminal mismanagement. News of the investigation of Valcke and al-Khelaifi is the latest blow to world soccer, an industry that has been in crisis since U.S. authorities in 2015 announced an indictment that charged some of the sport’s biggest power-brokers with involvement in a corruption scheme that dated back more than two decades.