Jérôme Valcke

Valcke in 2013

Jérôme Valcke (born 6 October 1960) is a French national and Secretary General[1] of the FIFA in Zürich.

Career

Valcke was employed as a journalist at the French TV company Canal+. From 1991 until 1997 he held the office of deputy chief of sports. In 1997 he took over the position of Chief executive officer at the Sport+ sports channel, which he occupied until 2002. From 2002 until 2003 Valcke worked for the sports rights agency Sportfive at their headquarters in Geneva as Chief Operating Officer. In the summer of 2003 Valcke switched to the international football federation FIFA in Zürich and took the position of Director of Marketing & TV. At the meeting of FIFA's Executive Committee on 27 June 2007 Valcke was installed as the new general secretary, as proposed by FIFA President Sepp Blatter, and was thereby elected as the successor of Urs Linsi who stepped down on 11 June 2007. Markus Kattner, who had acted as interim general secretary between 11 and 27 June 2007, was installed as his deputy. Kattner had already been working for FIFA since 2003 as chief of finance. Valcke is the first general secretary of FIFA since 1956 who wasn't born in Switzerland.

Besides his first language French, he speaks English, German and Spanish.

Criticism

The appointment of the new general secretary of FIFA Valcke surprised some experts, as FIFA president Blatter had released Valcke in December 2006 from his job as marketing director after a New York court had found him guilty in the summer of 2004 in his role as marketing director for negotiating sponsor agreements with the rival VISA, despite the existing agreement of FIFA conducted with the long-time partner MasterCard and thus violated the right of first negotiation of MasterCard. Because of this, the FIFA was fined USD$60 million. FIFA president Blatter said: "Strong people bring you back. When he began his work as director of marketing and TV in FIFA four and a half years ago, we were in a financial crisis. Currently we have an equity of CHF 752 million." According to Blatter, Valcke was released in December and had not been fired. Valcke responded to his promotion of 27 June 2007 in Zurich, with the following statement: "It's like a dream for me."

On 30 May 2011, Executive Committee member Jack Warner, who had been suspended that day for possible ethics violations pending an investigation, leaked an email from Valcke which suggested that Qatar had "bought" the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Valcke subsequently issued a statement denying he had suggested it was bribery, saying instead that the country had "used its financial muscle to lobby for support". Qatar officials also denied any impropriety.[2]

Personal life

Valcke is married and father to two children.[3]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jérôme Valcke.
  1. ↑ http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/administration/generalsecretary.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ↑ Doherty, Regan E. (30 May 2011). "Qataris brush off allegations of buying World Cup rights". Reuters. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
  3. ↑ url=http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/administration/generalsecretary.html