A possible return to the dock.

The Swiss prosecution appealed on Tuesday February 16 against the acquittal last October of Nasser al-Khelaïfi, boss of beIN Media and Paris SG, in a TV rights case also involving the former number 2 of Fifa Jérôme Valcke. 

The first of multiple scandals in world football to result in a court decision, this trial before the Federal Court of Bellinzona ended in an almost total setback for the prosecution at first instance. 

After receiving the reasoned judgment in January, the Confederation's Public Prosecutor's Office (MPC) "filed a notice of appeal in February" to request "the conviction of the three accused", a spokesperson told AFP. confirming information from the newspaper L'Équipe.  

In the most publicized section, Nasser al-Khelaïfi and Jérôme Valcke were accused of having concluded a pact behind the back of Fifa, falling under “unfair management” and liable to five years in prison.  

At the end of ten days of hearing in September 2020, the prosecution had requested 28 months of imprisonment against the Qatari leader, 3 years against Jérôme Valcke and 30 months against a Greek businessman, Dinos Deris, acquitted of the head of " private corruption "in a separate case.  

Like the prosecution, the Federal Criminal Court estimated that Mr. Valcke had cashed in his support for beIN in exchange for a luxurious villa on the Sardinian Emerald Coast, bought for him for 5 million euros at the end of 2013 by a company briefly owned by Nasser al-Khelaïfi.   

Acquitted after an agreement with Fifa 

The former secretary general of Fifa had requested the assistance of the Qatari leader to finance the "Villa Bianca", a few months before the signing, in April 2014, of a contract between beIN and the football body relating to the rights in North Africa and the Middle East of the 2026 and 2030 Worlds. 

In their civil judgment, the magistrates even qualified as a "bribe" the deposit for the residence reimbursed by Nasser al-Khelaïfi to Jérôme Valcke.

They therefore ordered the latter to return it to his former employer. 

But in criminal matters, the court could not convict for "private corruption", Fifa having withdrawn its complaint in January 2020 after an agreement with Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, the terms of which were never made public. 

There remained therefore the accusation of "unfair management", which requires proof that the agreement between the two men has harmed Fifa.

However "nothing indicates that Fifa could have obtained a more advantageous contract" than the one signed with beIN for 480 million dollars for two World Cups, or 60% more than for the Worlds-2018 and 2022, had decided the court. 

In a separate file, Jérôme Valcke was accused of having received 1.25 million euros from Dinos Deris, to promote the obtaining of media rights for several World Cups in Greece and Italy: he has again was cleared of the main charge, but convicted of having recorded these bribes under the term "loans" in his accounts. 

With AFP 

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