Innocence of Nasser Al-Khelaifi

On Friday, a Swiss federal court acquitted Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the Qatari president of Paris Saint-Germain and the BN media group, on charges of corruption in a TV rights case for the 2026 and 2030 FIFA World Cups.

The court also acquitted France’s former FIFA general secretary Jérôme Valcke on the same charges, but gave him an 11-month suspended sentence on charges of bribery and forgery in a separate case.

Al-Khelaifi, one of the most powerful figures in the world of football, was accused of instigating Falk to commit “aggravated criminal mismanagement”.

The latter, who until 2015 was the right-hand man of former FIFA President Sepp Blatter, faces a major charge related to two separate television rights cases.

Prosecutors are charging Falk with Al-Khelaifi receiving exclusive rights to use a five million euro ($5.9 million) luxury villa on the Italian island of Sardinia in 2013 in exchange for his support of beIN’s acquisition of television rights for 2026 and 2026. World Cup 2030 in the regions of the Middle East and North Africa.

Al-Khelaifi had to hand over the villa to the French under certain conditions, while the Qataris denied buying the property in question or promising to hand it over to Valk.

In return, the prosecution stated that Falk committed to “do everything in his power” to ensure that beIN becomes the exclusive carrier in the region for the two World Cups, an agreement reached on 29 April 2014 and has not been challenged by FIFA since. then.

Falk was also accused of using his position at FIFA between 2013 and 2015 to influence the granting of television rights in Italy and Greece for various versions of the World Cup and other tournaments scheduled between 2018 and 2030,” in exchange for receiving 1.25 million euros in three installments from the Greek businessman Dinos Deris, who ran It, also matters.

Source: AFP

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