A few hours before the duel between Real Madrid and PSG, for the Champions League, the Swiss prosecution requested 28 months in prison for the president of ‘beIN Media’ and Paris Saint Germain, Nasser al-Khelaifi, and 35 months for former FIFA number two Jerome Valcke in an appeal process for television rights.
Unlike the first instance, in 2020, when both leaders were acquitted, the federal prosecutor, Cristina Castellote, did not ask for prison this time with part of the conditional sentence.
A case of corruption
Al-Khelaifi, 48, and Valcke, 61, established a “corrupt pact”, said the magistrate, quoted by the Swiss news agency ‘ATS-Keystone’, when the justice of that country has been investigating since 2015 a series of world football scandals
In the most publicized case of the two that are being tried again since Monday by the Federal Criminal Court of Bellinzona, both men are accused of having concluded a pact behind the back of Fifa, carrying out “unfair management”, which may be punished with five years in prison.
The Court had estimated in the first process that Valcke had received, for his support of the ‘beIN’ chain, a luxurious house on the Sardinian Costa Smeralda, in Italy, bought for him for 5 million euros at the end of 2013 by a company which was briefly owned by Al-Khelaifi.
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The former secretary general of Fifa had requested the help 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 soccer entity for rights in North Africa and in the Middle East of the 2026 and 2030 World Cups.
In the civil trial, the magistrates had even described the deposit for the Sardinian house as a “bribe”. But, at the criminal level, the court could not convict for “private corruption” and Fifa withdrew its complaint in January 2020 after an agreement with Al-Khelaifi, the terms of which were never made public. The accusation of “unfair management” remained, which needs to prove that the agreement between the two men harmed Fifa.
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“Nothing indicates that Fifa could have obtained a more advantageous contract than the one signed with ‘beIN’for 480 million dollars for two World Cups, 60% more than for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, when the chain was the only one in competition,” the court said.
The prosecutor described this Tuesday as “pure speculation” the argument of a contract favorable to Fifa, therefore demanding the conviction of the two leaders. The hearing will continue on Wednesday with defense arguments.
AFP
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