FIFA have sacked Jerome Valcke with immediate effect.

Jerome Valcke 

FIFA have sacked Jerome Valcke with immediate effect.

The general secretary had been suspended from all footballing activities amid allegations of involvement in the World Cup ticketing scandal.



Valcke, 55, is currently facing claims of bribery and is accused of being involved in a money-making scheme to profit from the sale of tickets for the 2014 World Cup.

He denies any wrongdoing.

The FIFA statement read: "The FIFA Emergency Committee decided, on 9 January 2016, to dismiss Jerome Valcke from the position of FIFA Secretary General with immediate effect. Jerome Valcke is therefore no longer the Secretary General of FIFA.

"The employment relationship between FIFA and Jerome Valcke has also been terminated.

"Jerome Valcke was provisionally released from his duties as Secretary General on 17 September 2015, and on 7 January 2016, formal adjudicatory proceedings were opened against him by the adjudicatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert. The provisional suspension imposed on Jerome Valcke on 8 October 2015 and extended on 6 January 2016 continues to be valid.

"The duties of the Secretary General will continue to be assumed by the Acting Secretary General, Dr Markus Kattner."

Meanwhile, Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini are now free to launch appeals against their eight-year bans after FIFA's ethics panel formally gave them the reasons for their expulsions