BREAKING: FIFA Places 12-Year Ban on Former Secretary General, Valcke.

The independent Ethics Committee of the world football governing body has placed a 12-year ban on former Secretary General of FIFA, Jerome Valcke. He is stay away from all football-related activities on a national and international level.

The ban, handed down on Friday, is to commence with immediate effect.

According to the statement on FIFA’s official website, the investigation against Mr Valcke was conducted by Cornel Borbély, chairman of the investigations chamber of the Ethics Committee, following allegations of potential misconduct related to the sale of tickets for FIFA World Cups.

The statement emphasised that during the course of the investigations, several other acts of potential misconduct arose, in particular abuse of the FIFA travel expenses policies and regulations, cases involving related-parties issues and the sale of TV and other media rights, and the destruction of evidence.

The committee also said Mr Valcke deliberately tried to obstruct the ongoing proceedings against him by attempting to delete or deleting several files and folders relevant to the investigation, despite being aware of his duty to preserve all data and to collaborate in order to establish the facts of the case.

The FIFA Ethics Committee concluded that having been found guilty on various grounds, Mr Valcke is to be banned for 12 years from all football related activities and fined CHF 100,000.