Zurich (AFP)
A hearing with former Fifa N.2 Jérôme Valcke, scheduled for Thursday in Bern, was canceled due to travel restrictions imposed by the coronavirus crisis, we learned from the former secretary general suspended.
"The hearing did not take place due to the Covid situation. There is no new date set," said Mr. Valcke, interviewed by AFP.
Residing in Catalonia, Mr. Valcke was unable to travel to Switzerland, where travelers arriving from Spain are subject to quarantine.
The former journalist of the French channel Canal +, suspended 10 years for separate acts of corruption, was summoned by the prosecutor Thomas Hildbrand within the framework of a criminal procedure also targeting the former president of Fifa Sepp Blatter as well as the ex-CFO, German Markus Kattner.
The three men are suspected of "unfair management". Mr. Blatter answered the prosecutor's questions last Thursday, he told AFP.
This new investigation opened last June concerns the granting of a loan of 1 million USD (850,000 EUR) "without interest or guarantee" of one million dollars by Fifa to the Football Federation of Trinidad and Tobago , then under the control of the sulphurous Jack Warner.
Struck off for life by the internal justice of Fifa, Mr. Warner was indicted for corruption by the American justice.
This new aspect was not included in the investigation against Mr. Blatter when criminal proceedings were initiated against him in September 2015.
Mr. Valcke will soon be summoned to Switzerland again, where he is to be tried from September 14 by the Federal Criminal Court of Bellinzona for "aggravated unfair management" and "passive corruption" in connection with the granting of rights to BeIN Media of the 2026 and 2030 World Cups.
Qatari Nasser Al-Khelaifi, president of Paris-SG and leader of BeIN, must appear for "instigation of unfair management" in the same procedure.
© 2020 AFP