FIFA Update: Valcke Cancels Trip to Women’s World Cup; Leoz Detained
June 2, 2015
FIFA’s general secretary Jerome Valcke will not attend the opening of the Women’s World Cup on Saturday 6 June due to the ongoing crisis in Zurich.
World football’s governing body released a statement saying that Valcke would not be in attendance, as he was due to be, because “it is important that he attends to matters at Fifa’s headquarters in Zurich”.
The news comes as reports suggest the Frenchman was involved in the $10m transfer to former CONCACAF president Jack Warner in 2008, highlighted in the US Department of Justice’s indictment of 14 FIFA officials and sports marketing executives last week.
However, FIFA maintain that Sepp Blatter – who was re-elected as president for a fifth term on Friday – will still attend the final of the tournament in Vancouver on July 5.
Bans and Arrests
The crisis in world football continues as FIFA has provisiouanlly suspended a number of officials from all football-related activities.
CONCACAF general secretary Enrique Sanz has been banned on the basis of “investigations carried out by the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee and the latest facts presented by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York”.
Congolese Football Association vice-president Jean Guy Blaise Mayolas and general secretary Badji Mombo Wantete have also been suspended for alleged “breaches of the FIFA code of ethics”.
Meanwhile, former FIFA executive committee member Nicolas Leoz has been detained in hospital in Asuncion, Paraguay pending a United States extradition application.
The former president of CONMEBOL, 86, was described in the US Justice Department indictment as being in a position “to use his power and influence to unlawfully enrich himself.”
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