FIFA's secretary general and Sepp Blatter's right-hand henchman Jérôme Valcke has been released from duty for an indeterminate time after being implicated in a ticket sales scandal. According to the Guardian, Valcke has been accused—by American-Israeli former soccer player and JB Sports Marketing consultant Benny Alon—of being involved with trying to sell 2014 World Cup tickets at upwards of three times face value and pocketing the money.The deal in question was signed in 2010 to give JB Marketing 8,750 tickets to 24 games at the 2014 World Cup—with guarantees that 12 of those games were of JB's choosing, and 12 of FIFA's. The implication is that extra money was passed back and forth to secure more premium tickets on either side of the deal. Alon told the Daily Mail:
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Alon also made the accusations of an alleged $250,000 advance-cash deal between FIFA and JB Marketing. As of yet, it is unclear whether or not that cash transfer is related to the 2014 ticket sales deal.According to Alon, things changed when both parties discovered a Brazilian law cracking down on certain types of companies dealing with certain types of tickets, and when FIFA realized that they instead owed another company, Match, a large portion of the tickets previously promised to JB. FIFA then asked JB to cancel their 2010 deal and work through Match instead, according to the Daily Mail. Valcke wrote Alon the following in an email,I told him we'd like tickets to three Germany matches, and all the matches Brazil might play. It was clear we could make a good amount of money from selling these tickets if we got these games—the creme de la creme—and we agreed to split the profit.
Prior to canceling the deal, Alon had boasted of their mutual gain in emails to Valcke, "We are doing better then [sic] the NY Stock Exchange." It seems that after the deal went sour, Alon's jubilation changed. See the bus, under which Valcke was thrown, above.Benny, if you ask lawyers about [it] nothing will happen. You, we, have no choice. Otherwise [your] deal will be canceled by FIFA or we all face as individuals criminal offense. It is not a joke. It is very serious. So avoid too many advice.