Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, president of beIN and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), and Jérôme Valcke, former FIFA Secretary General, the first top football leaders in Europe to risk imprisonment, They will know the verdict this Friday his trial in Switzerland for corruption in the award of television rights.
The Bellinzona Federal Criminal Court will issue a sentence at 1:30 pm on the two defendants, who were heard for ten days in September, as well as against a Greek businessman who had not appeared for health reasons, Dinos Deris.
In this case, the first world football scandal to find its judicial end in Switzerland, the prosecution had requested 28 months in prison against Al-Khelaïfi, 3 years against Valcke and 30 months against Deris, with partial suspension, in all three cases.
The most severe accusation
It is the most severe accusation on European soil in the many cases that hit FIFA. The prosecution accuses Valcke of having requested the help of Nasser Al-Khelaïfi in the summer of 2013 to buy a luxurious villa in Sardinia, at a time when beIN was negotiating the extension of its TV rights in North Africa and in Middle East for the 2026 and 2030 World Cups.
Valcke and Al-Khelaïfi deny any corruption pact and ask to be acquitted. In another case involving television rights in Greece and Italy, the former FIFA No. 2 was tried for receiving 1.25 million euros in three installments from Dinos Deris. This time, according to the prosecution, it was to promote the obtaining of television rights to several World Cups in Greece and Italy.