The Swiss prosecutor's office appealed against the acquittal last October of Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, President of beIN Media and Paris Saint-Germain, in a television rights case that also involves the former FIFA number 2 Jérôme Valcke.
The first of multiple scandals in world football that culminated in a court decision, this trial before the Bellinzona Federal Court It ended in an almost total setback for the prosecution decided in the first instance.
After receiving the sentence in January, the Public Ministry of the Confederation (MPC) “He filed an appeal in February” to request “the conviction of the three defendants,” a spokesman told AFP, confirming information from the daily L’Équipe.
Nasser Al-Khelaïfi and Jérôme Valcke were chargedhaving carried out a pact behind the back of FIFA, fall under “unfair management” and be subject to five years in prison.
At the end of ten days of hearing in September 2020, the Prosecutor's Office had requested 28 months in prison against the Qatari leader, three years against Jérôme Valcke and 30 months against a Greek businessman, Dinos Deris.
Like the prosecution, the Federal Criminal Court had estimated that Valcke had enlisted his support for beIN in exchange for a luxurious villa on the Emerald Coast of Sardinia, bought for him for € 5 million at the end of 2013 by a company briefly owned by Nasser Al-Khelaïfi.
Former FIFA Secretary General had requested the help 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 organization for television rights in North Africa and the Middle East for the 2026 World Cups and 2030.
In your civil suit, the magistrates even qualified as “bribery” the deposit for the residence refunded 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”, since FIFA withdrew its complaint in January 2020 following an agreement with Al-Khelaïfi, whose terms were never made public.
Therefore, the accusation of “unfair management” remained, which requires proof that the agreement between the two men has harmed FIFA. However, “there is no indication 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 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
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 was again acquitted of the main charge, but convicted of having recorded these bribes under the term “loans” in his accounts.