Fifa: Sepp Blatter suspended until 2028 and Jérôme Valcke until 2032

The two men are now deprived of any "administrative or sporting" responsibility until June 2028 for Mr. Blatter and June 2032 for Mr. Valcke, adding these sanctions to those taken in 2015 and 2016 by the ethics commission of the Fifa.

The internal justice of the instance also imposed a fine of one million Swiss francs (about 900,000 euros) each, in two decisions notified on Wednesday and which they can challenge before the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Conclusion of an investigation opened in September 2016, this new conviction excludes any return to the business of the tandem, which no longer represented any threat to the current direction of Fifa, chaired since 2016 by Gianni Infantino.

In this section, the ethics commission accuses the former leaders of having "developed a system" granting them "extraordinary benefits with a minimum of effort", in violation of several ethical rules.

58 million euros at three

According to the details of the decision, Sepp Blatter has pocketed 23 million Swiss francs (20.7 million euros) of “extraordinary bonuses” linked to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the 2013 Confederations Cup and the World Cup. 2014 in Brazil.

The French Jérôme Valcke, former sports journalist at Canal +, for his part received 30 million Swiss francs (27 million euros) in bonuses for the same period, in addition to his usual emoluments.

However, for this, the two leaders did not need any validation except that of the former financial director Markus Kattner, dismissed in May 2016 and suspended for ten years in June 2020 in the same case, and that of the former -Vice President of Fifa Julio Grondona, who died in 2014. 

"Together, Messrs Blatter, Valcke and Kattner shared 64.5 million Swiss francs (58 million euros) in extraordinary bonuses", as well as 4.5 million dollars (3.80 million euros) for Julio Grondona, sums up the ethics committee.

Sepp Blatter, Julio Grondona and Jérôme Valcke “signed the endorsements” approving their respective bonuses, while Markus Kattner was responsible for paying them, refraining from reporting them to Fifa auditors as well as in the financial press releases of the instance.

"Parody of justice"

Sepp Blatter

Sepp Blatter, aged 85, is already facing several investigations by the Swiss justice, including that on the controversial payment of 2 million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros) to Michel Platini in 2011. This new sanction represents a "blow behind the neck, painful and incomprehensible", reacted to AFP the Swiss, who is recovering in a Valais clinic from hospitalization in December and January.

"The ethics commission, in its current form, no longer has anything to do with an independent body - it is nothing more than the armed wing of the president of Fifa and little more than a parody of justice", he accused, fierce critic of his successor for years.

Jérôme Valcke, 60, is awaiting his appeal trial in a case of unfair management and corruption also involving the boss of beIN Media and PSG, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi.

During the hearing at first instance, which resulted in the acquittal of the two men, Mr. Valcke had confided in wanting to retrain in agriculture, after "two-three" other attempts "polluted" by interventions from Fifa .

Swiss justice has opened around twenty investigations around the instance since 2015: most of them are linked to the Blatter era, but Gianni Infantino has also been prosecuted since July 2020 for three secret meetings with the former chief prosecutor.

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