FIFA suspends general secretary over World Cup tickets claims

Sepp Blatter’s right-hand man at FIFA was relieved of his duties and faces formal investigation after fresh allegations of World Cup Tickets Scheme.

FIFA has announced Thursday that it has suspended Secretary General Jérôme Valcke “until further notice,” for alleged involvement in an operation to improperly profit from World Cup ticket sales. FIFA has also requested a formal investigation by the FIFA Ethics Committee.

The allegations against Valcke have been made by a consultant, Benny Alon, who worked for JB Sports Marketing that at one point had a contract with FIFA to sell tickets for the 2014 World Cup.

Documents seen by the Guardian appears that Valcke was to be the beneficiary of an agreement to sell the tickets at inflated prices but Valcke denied the allegations saying that when he saw that the tickets were offered more than four times the value, he warned Alon to adhere to the regulations and eventually cancelled the contract.