Lausanne (AFP)

Fifa announced on Wednesday that it had imposed six years and eight months of additional suspension on its former president and secretary general, Sepp Blatter and Jérôme Valcke, for having granted themselves generous bonuses without control.

The internal justice of the international body, which had already banned the two leaders from all football-related activity, respectively until October 2021 and October 2025, also sentenced them to a fine of one million Swiss francs (approximately 900,000 euros) each.

Blamed in several cases by the Swiss criminal justice, Sepp Blatter and Jérôme Valcke are accused of a new series of violations of the code of ethics of Fifa, linked to their remuneration.

The former FIFA president has granted himself 23 million Swiss francs (20.7 million euros) of "extraordinary bonuses" linked to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the 2013 Confederations Cup and the World Cup -2014 in Brazil, notes the decision, taken on December 17, 2020 but which has just been notified to the parties.

The French Jérôme Valcke, former sports journalist who became the right arm of Sepp Blatter, for his part received 30 million Swiss francs (27 million euros) in bonus for the same period, in addition to his usual emoluments, underlines the commission of Fifa ethics.

However, for this, the two leaders did not need any validation except that of the former financial director Markus Kattner, dismissed in May 2016 and suspended for ten years in June 2020, and that of the former vice president of Fifa Julio Grondona, who died in 2014.

"Together, Messrs Blatter, Valcke and Kattner shared 64.5 million Swiss francs (58 million euros) in extraordinary bonuses", as well as 4.5 million dollars (3.80 million euros) for Julio Grondona, summarizes the decision.

According to the ethics commission, the four officials "had developed a system" granting them "extraordinary benefits with a minimum of effort", since they mutually approved the amendments to their contracts, in violation of their duties of control .

© 2021 AFP