Zurich // Fifa has fired secretary general Jerome Valcke, who is under investigation for misconduct, world football's governing body said Wednesday.
The former right-hand man to Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president banned for eight years, has been accused of aiding a scheme to sell 2014 World Cup tickets on the black market.
“The Fifa emergency committee decided, on 9 January 2016, to dismiss Jerome Valcke from the position of Fifa secretary general with immediate effect,” said a statement.
It said all of the Frenchman’s employment with Fifa had been “terminated.”
Read more: Blatter and Platini could face lifetime exclusion with Fifa ethics panel chamber to appeal bans
Valcke was suspended on September 17 after the ethics committee started an inquiry into allegations that he helped sell 2014 World Cup tickets on the black market. The suspension was renewed on January 6.
He has also been linked to a $10 million payment made by South Africa to corruption-tainted former Caribbean football chief Jack Warner. US investigators reportedly believe this was a bribe to secure votes for the 2010 World Cup.
Last week, Fifa’s ethics court opened formal proceedings against Valcke over the alleged black market ticket scheme, after world football’s investigators said they had evidence justifying a nine-year ban.
The Frenchman was also facing a fine of 100,000 Swiss francs ($99,000/92,000 euros).
Valcke has denied all wrongdoing and his US lawyer Barry Berke has blasted Fifa for ignoring his client’s “exemplary conduct and extraordinary contributions during his long tenure as secretary general”.
Fifa said that Markus Kattner will continue to serve as acting secretary general of a body currently fighting scandals on several fronts.
US authorities have charged 39 individuals -- including top Fifa executive members -- and two companies over bribery in football contracts.
Blatter is under criminal investigation in Switzerland for criminal mismanagement over a two million Swiss francs ($2 million/1.8 million euro) payment to Fifa vice president Michel Platini. Both have been banished from football for eight years.
On September 24, the day before the Swiss attorney general announced that Blatter was the target of a criminal probe, Fifa agreed to turn over Valcke’s professional emails to prosecutors in Bern.
Switzerland is also investigating the attribution of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.
Valcke is no stranger to controversy having also been sacked in 2006 over a battle with credit card sponsors Mastercard.
Valcke negotiated a deal with Visa that excluded long-time sponsors Mastercard. Fifa had to pay $90 million in compensation.
A New York judge said Valcke had lied to both companies. He was sacked as marketing director, but after the compensation deal, Blatter reappointed him as his deputy.
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It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
