wo senior FIFA officials from the Sepp Blatter era have had their bans from football reduced by the governing body’s appeal committee.
Blatter’s former right-hand man Jerome Valcke has had his 12-year ban reduced to 10 years and the six-year ban for former FIFA vice-president Chung Mong-Joon has been cut to five years.
Ex-secretary general Valcke was banned in February for financial impropriety and his involvement in a TV rights scam, while Chung’s sanction was announced last October after an investigation into the bidding process for the 2018-2022 World Cups.
Valcke was fired by FIFA this year over a ticketing and World Cup broadcasting rights scandal, plus expenses abuses such as using private flights for personal use.
FIFA says its appeals committee ruled the ethics judges were too severe with Valcke over the World Cup TV rights.
The appeals panel ruled that “mitigating factors had not been fully assessed” relating to television rights for the Caribbean for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
FIFA sold those rights to the control of long-time vice president Jack Warner for a “fee far below their actual market value,” FIFA says.
Valcke can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
