Fines ex-president $1.1M
FIFA has extended the ban on its former president Sepp Blatter till 2028 after he was found guilty of receiving huge bonuses while serving his tenure.
The football governing body imposed a fresh six years and eight months suspension on Blatter, while former FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke also had his existing suspension extended by the same amount.
The new bans will only come into force when the current bans on Blatter and Valcke for corruption, which last till October this year and October 2025, end.
FIFA’s Ethics Committee said it had also fined each man one million Swiss francs ($1.1 million, 900,000 euros).
Blatter,85, received 23 million Swiss francs in “extraordinary bonuses” linked to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil as well as the Confederations Cup tournament in Brazil that preceded it, the Ethics Committee said in a summary of its decision.
Valcke, the 60-year-old Frenchman who was Blatter’s right-hand man during his 17-year reign at the head of football’s world governing body, received 30 million Swiss francs in bonuses over the same period, the committee said.
FIFA said Blatter and Valcke had violated the Code of Ethics by “offering and accepting gifts or other benefits” and through “abuse of position”.
