It’s judgement day (part 1). The result of the first case involving Fifa is due shortly

By Tony Attwood

The British media, alone in most of Europe, have studiously ignored the dramatic series of court cases that have been engulfing world football – probably because they are having difficulty reconciling what we have discovered with all that they have said before in supporting Fifa, and English bids to host the world cup.

But today Fifa is going to find out, any minute now, what the Federal Criminal Court of Bellinzona is going to rule, in the case of Fifa, Al-Khelaïfi and Valcke.  Of course this is only the start – we haven’t got to Infantino yet, but that will come even though British media blindness follows media blindness.

So today, two key figures in world football now risk imprisonment: the boss of beIN Sports and PSG Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, and ex-Fifa number 2 Jérôme Valcke.

And that is just that bit embarrassing for the British media and the FA and the Premier League because they all got mightily agitated about the sale of Newcastle United to Saudi Arabia, on the grounds that Saudi Arabia was the home of duplicitous dealings over TV rights.  TV rights that had been sold to beIN Sports.  But if it turns out that the head of beIN Sports has been doing naughty things, then that whole argument about not allowing a Saudi group to bid for Newcastle, starts to crumble.  Unless of course, all the contracts between the Premier League and beIN Sports are going to be cancelled overnight.

In the cases being concluded today, the prosecution requested 28 months imprisonment against Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, who will not attend the trial for health reasons, three years against Jérôme Valcke and 30 months against a third defendant, Dinos Deris.

Jérôme Valcke is the former right-hand man of the now long departed Sepp Blatter of Fifa.  Mr Valcke is accused of having concluded a pact with Nasser Al-Khelaïfi behind his employer’s back.  In Swiss law that is “unfair management” punishable by five years in prison.

The prosecution showed that Jérôme Valcke supported beIN Sports’ bid in exchange for “the exclusive use” of a luxury villa on the Sardinia coast, bought for him for 5 million euros at the end of 2013.  Bought indeed by a company briefly owned by Nasser Al-Khelaïfi.

The former secretary general of Fifa admitted to having requested the assistance of the Qatari leader to finance the “Villa Bianca”, a few months before the signing a contract in April 2014 between beIN and Fifa relating to the rights in North Africa and the Middle East for the 2026 and 2030 world cups.

But for the defendants, who each plead not guilty, say the two episodes have nothing to do with each other.  They were private arrangements with no bribes involves, they claim.  Besides, they say, beIN was the only bidder in contention, and yet they paid a very high amount for the rights, a sum which Fifa has never complained about as being too low.

And the reason they did this, they imply, was to become a global giant in the world of sports rights, spending  $480 million for two World Cups, 60% more than for the 2018 and 2022 Worlds Cups.

Nasser Al-Khelaïfi is charged with “the instigation of unfair management”.  Meanwhile in a separate file but attached to the same hearing, Jérôme Valcke is accused of having received 1.25 million euros from Dinos Deris, in three payments from Liechtenstein, to promote the obtaining of media rights in Greece and Italy.

Fifa is now claiming “between 1.4 and 2.3 million euros” from its former secretary general for having benefited from “Villa Bianca” for 18 months and a further 1.25 million euros from Jérôme Valcke and Dinos Deris together.

Beyond the fate of the three defendants, this trial is an important milestone for the Swiss justice system.  For many years no legal claim could be made against any officer of an international sports organization which had its HQ on Swiss soil.  That rule was then eliminated from the Swiss legal code (you might recall Untold Arsenal making quite a thing about that when the British media ignored it, thus leaving them caught on the hope when the Americans sent the FBI in to Fifa’s HQ).

Since then the Swiss have opened some twenty investigations concerning Fifa over the past five years.  And we suspect there is more to come.

I’m sorry you can’t read about any of this in the British media (if you are in the UK) but we are trying to keep up with it on Untold to cover for this lack of interest on their part.

The corruption files

• Could Fifa really be stopped? Is the unthinkable now actually possible?
• Fifa, “Guilty As Charged.” This MUST be the turning point for Fifa and CAS
• IFAB vs PGMO vs Fifa… who is the most secret (and damaging) of them all?
• Another football scandal looms as law officers raid the German FA’s offices
• Infantino is one step closer to the edge of the cliff, but UK media is still silent
• Fifa in chaos as Infantino’s illegal meetings revealed and chief Swiss lawman resigns
• Swiss prosecutors demand prison for beIN & PSG president and ex-Fifa No 2.