The first of multiple scandals in world football to lead to a judicial decision in Switzerland, the trial against Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, boss of BeIN Media and PSG in a TV rights case involving former Fifa number 2, Jérôme Valcke , ended in an almost total setback for the prosecution in October.
It took place before the federal court in Bellinzona.
After receiving the reasoned judgment in January, the Confederation's Public Prosecutor's Office (MPC) "filed a statement of appeal in February" to request "the conviction of the three accused", a spokesperson told AFP.
In the most publicized section, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi and Jérôme Valcke were accused of having concluded a pact behind the back of Fifa, falling under “unfair management” and liable to five years in prison.
At the end of ten days of hearing in September 2020, the prosecution had requested twenty-eight months of imprisonment against the Qatari leader, three years against Jérôme Valcke and thirty months against a Greek businessman, Dinos Deris, acquitted of the chief. of “private corruption” in a separate case.
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Like the prosecution, the Federal Criminal Court had estimated that Mr. Valcke had cashed his support for BeIN in exchange for a luxurious villa on the Sardinian Emerald Coast, bought for him 5 million euros at the end of 2013 by a company briefly owned by Nasser Al-Khelaïfi.
The former secretary general of Fifa had requested the assistance of the Qatari leader to finance the Villa Bianca, a few months before the signing, in April 2014, of a contract between BeIN and the football body on rights in Africa North and Middle East of the 2026 and 2030 Worlds.
In their civil judgment, the magistrates qualified as a “bribe” the deposit for the residence reimbursed by Nasser Al-Khelaïfi to Jérôme Valcke.
They therefore ordered the latter to return it to his former employer.
But in criminal matters, the court could not convict for "private corruption", Fifa having withdrawn its complaint in January 2020 after an agreement with Al-Khelaïfi, the terms of which were never made public.
A "desperate" action, according to his lawyers
There remained therefore the accusation of "unfair management", which requires proving that the agreement between the two men harmed the world institution.
But "nothing indicates that Fifa could have obtained a more advantageous contract" than the one signed with BeIN for 480 million dollars (400 million euros) for two World Cups, or 60% more than for the 2018 Worlds and 2022, had ruled the court.
Qualifying this action as "desperate", the lawyers of Nasser Al-Khelaïfi specify: "Our client was fully acquitted in October, after an exhaustive investigation of four years, a thorough trial of two weeks, during which the prosecution presented all the elements and all the theories imaginable without proving anything.
Absolutely nothing has changed since October, neither in fact nor in law.
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