FIFA suspends Sepp Blatter’s top aide

The corruption scandal that has rocked FIFA for the last four months claimed its highest-ranking official Thursday when world soccer’s governing body announced that Secretary General Jerome Valcke has been suspended after it was revealed he was the focus of a potentially lucrative deal involving the sale of 2014 World Cup tickets.

In a one-paragraph statement, FIFA said it has been made aware of a “series of allegations” and has requested a formal investigation by its internal ethics committee. FIFA did not specify details but said Valcke, second only to embattled President Sepp Blatter in the group’s power structure, “has been put on leave and released from his duties effective immediately.”

Valcke, Blatter’s top assistant since 2007, has been the subject of multiple ethics probes in recent months. But the final straw appeared to come early Thursday when a former FIFA ticketing partner made allegations about selling top-tier World Cup tickets at three times face value.

Valcke denied the allegations, but FIFA decided it would no longer stand behind him. He was scheduled to step down in February, after elections to choose Blatter’s successor. Blatter won reelection to a fifth term as FIFA president in May, but a U.S. Justice Department investigation that charged nine top soccer officials with bribery, racketeering and money laundering, among other offenses, persuaded Blatter to step down this winter. The Justice Department warned more indictments are coming. Swiss authorities are conducting their own investigation into FIFA, which is based in Zurich.

The latest allegations against Valcke were made by a consultant at a company that struck a deal with FIFA to sell tickets for the 2014 World Cup. That contract was later canceled, but according to documents reviewed by the English newspaper the Guardian, Valcke was to be the beneficiary of an agreement to sell the tickets at inflated prices.

However, the paper said, the documents are incomplete, selective and could easily be open to other interpretations. One email from a consultant, Benny Alon, apparently sent to Valcke, states in reference to the sale of tickets to group matches at the 2014 World Cup: “We made $114,000 each on Germany.” It is uncertain any tickets were actually sold.

The Guardian reported that when Valcke became aware that tickets were being offered at above face value, he warned Alon about the need to adhere to the regulations and ended up terminating the contract.

In an email Alon claims was sent to Valcke in April 2013, the Guardian reported, Alon details how much was being made on each ticket. Fifty tickets for a second-round match in São Paulo with a face value of $230 sell for $1,300 each and 600 tickets for Germany’s first-round game sell for three times their $190 face value. “We are doing better then the NY Stock Exchange,” writes Alon.

The deal ultimately collapsed, claims Alon, because FIFA realized it should not have agreed to sell him the tickets because the deal did not comply with Brazilian law.

In an email reviewed by the newspaper, Valcke wrote to Alon in December 2013: “You, we, have no choice. Otherwise the deal will be canceled by FIFA or we all face as individuals criminal offense. It is not a joke. It is very serious.”

For more soccer news, follow @kbaxter11.

ALSO:

How bad is Jason Pierre-Paul’s hand injury? Take a look

Floyd Mayweather’s worst Showtime pay-per-view haul, in perspective

Obama names Fernando Valenzuela ambassador for immigration program