Valcke pays a heavy price
Just over five years ago, on the eve of the Confederations Cup in Brazil, Jerome Valcke was talking about how much he was looking forward to the finals in Russia. If only he had known then what he knows now.
Barely two weeks after France’s victory over Croatia in Moscow, the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected an appeal by the 57-year-old Frenchman against a 10-year ban from football imposed by FIFA’s ethics committee.
Back in Brazil in 2013, Valcke was riding high after six years as secretarygeneral of FIFA. He had strong-armed South Africa into proving itself to be an acceptable host for the World Cup in 2010 and was achieving the same stressful trick in South America – although not without more than a few cross words, including a warning that the Brazilians needed “a kick up the backside” to come up to preparatory speed.
Whatever else he was up to, Valcke accomplished an excellent job in both cases, having no compunction about treading on a lot of sensitive toes. It was his experience with South Africa and Brazil which prompted his other most notable statement about looking forward to Russia 2018.
Conceding that he may have sounded “crazy”, Valcke said: “Less democracy is sometimes better for organising a World Cup. When you have a very strong head of state who can take decisions, as maybe president Putin can do in 2018, then it is easier for organisers than in other countries where you have to negotiate at different levels of administration.”
Proof of the pudding? Russia was the most efficiently organised World Cup since Germany in 2006 and, given today’s technological, logistical and security complications, it was probably the best of all in most observers’ modern memories.
Valcke would have had an easy ride. But by then, of course, he was long
Whatever else he was up to, Valcke accomplished an excellent job
gone. He had been mulling over a run for the FIFA presidency when he was suspended in October 2015. He was sacked in January 2016 and banned for 12 years the following month, reduced on appeal to 10 years.
The charge sheet was damning: plotting the illicit resale of FIFA World Cup tickets, breaching travel-expenses rules, arranging a cut-price TV rights deal, destroying documentation in failing to co-operate with the FIFA investigation. CAS judged the ban and accompanying fine of 100,000 Swiss francs as “wholly proportionate”. Valcke, who now lives in Barcelona where he has set up a promotions and marketing company, has indicated he will appeal again to the Swiss federal court. However, he still faces possible legal action in Switzerland over TV negotiations with Nasser Al Khelaifi, who is the head of BeIN Sports and president of French champions Paris Saint-Germain.
In the meantime, everyone else took the credit for Russia 2018.