Valcke appeals 10-year ban

The Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced in a statement posted on its website that Jerome Valcke had filed the appeal to a decision issued by the FIFA Appeal Committee last June. In that decision, Valcke's original 12-year ban from all football related activities was reduced to 10 years. However, the CAS said that in his latest appeal, the Frenchman "seeks to have the challenged decision set aside in order for the sanction imposed on him to be lifted definitively."

Valcke, who was FIFA's secretary general from 2007 until September 2015, became embroiled in the corruption scandal that broke out with a police raid on a Zurich hotel ahead of the FIFA Council in May of that same year, in which several senior FIFA officials were arrested.

After allegations of corruption emerged against him, FIFA placed Valcke on leave and handed him a provisional 90-day ban from football. When this expired, he was banned for a further 45 days, and as the allegations against him deepened, he was sacked from his FIFA post in January 2016.

In February 2017, FIFA ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert found Valcke guilty of misconduct over the sale of World Cup tickets above face value, attempting to sell television rights below their market value, abuse of travel expenses and destruction of evidence.

Valcke has denied any wrongdoing.

pfd/rt (Reuters, dpa)