Friday 12 February 2016 17:28, UK
The former general secretary of FIFA, Jerome Valcke, has been banned from all football-related activities for 12 years.
His punishment follows the eight-year bans given to FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA chief Michel Platini.
The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee, chaired by Hans‑Joachim Eckert, found that Valcke had deliberately given a sports marketing firm an unfair advantage from the selling of World Cup tickets.
The committee also found that Valcke had travelled at FIFA's expense for personal and family sightseeing trips.
And Valcke was also found to have attempted to grant TV and media rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to a third party for a fee far below their actual market value.
It was also found that Valcke deliberately tried to obstruct the investigation by destroying evidence.
Frenchman Valcke was also fined over £70,000.
A FIFA statement read: "In summary, the conduct of Mr Valcke as Secretary General of FIFA constituted a violation of article 13 (General rules of conduct), article 15 (Loyalty), article 16 (Confidentiality), article 18 (Duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting), article 19 (Conflicts of interest), article 20 (Offering and accepting gifts and other benefits) and article 41 (Obligation of the parties to collaborate) of the FIFA Code of Ethics.
"In consequence, Mr Valcke has been banned for 12 years from all football‑related activities and fined CHF 100,000."
Valcke's lawyer said: "With today's decision, the FIFA Ethics Committee has shown that it is not a credible, independent or objective decision-making body.
"In reaching an entirely unsupported, unjust and politically-motivated decision, it wholly ignored the uncontroverted and exculpatory evidence that had been presented to it.
"Mr Valcke is confident that when all the facts come out, it will be clear that he did absolutely nothing wrong in carrying out his duties for the good of FIFA and the sport."
