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CAS 2017/A/5003 Jérôme Valcke V. FIFA ARBITRAL AWARD Delivered

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CAS 2017/A/5003 Jérôme Valcke V. FIFA ARBITRAL AWARD Delivered CAS 2017/A/5003 Jérôme Valcke v. FIFA ARBITRAL AWARD delivered by the COURT OF ARBITRATION FOR SPORT sitting in the following composition: President: Prof. Massimo Coccia, Attorney-at-law, Rome, Italy Arbitrators: The Hon Michael J Beloff QC, Barrister, London, United Kingdom Prof. Ulrich Haas, Professor, Zurich, Switzerland Ad hoc Clerk: Mr. Francisco A. Larios, Attorney-at-law, Miami, Florida, USA in the arbitration between Mr. Jérôme Valcke, Barcelona, Spain Represented by Dr. Marco Niedermann and Mr. Jonas Oggier, Attorneys-at-law, Niedermann Rechtsanwälte, Zurich, Switzerland, and Dr. Stéphane Ceccaldi, Attorney-at-law, JuriConseil Avocats, Marseille, France Appellant and Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), Zurich, Switzerland Represented by Messrs. Antonio Rigozzi, Sébastian Besson and William McAuliffe, Attorneys- at-law, Lévy Kaufmann-Kohler, Geneva, Switzerland Respondent ***** CAS 2017/A/5003 Jérôme Valcke v. FIFA – Page 2 Table of Contents I. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3 II. Parties ......................................................................................................................................... 3 A. The Appellant ....................................................................................................................... 3 B. The Respondent .................................................................................................................... 4 III. Background ................................................................................................................................ 4 A. Factual background .............................................................................................................. 4 a) Mr. Valcke’s involvement in JB Sports Marketing AG’s sale of FIFA World Cup Ticket . 4 b) Mr. Valcke’s travel expenses ............................................................................................. 13 c) Mr. Valcke’s involvement in the FIFA-EON transaction .................................................. 14 d) Mr. Valcke’s offer of a benefit to the Caribbean Football Union ...................................... 16 e) Mr. Valcke’s destruction of evidence ................................................................................. 17 f) Mr. Valcke’s failure to cooperate ....................................................................................... 18 B. Proceedings before the FIFA Adjudicatory Chamber and Appeal Committee .................. 21 IV. Proceedings before the Court of Arbitration for Sport ............................................................. 26 V. Submissions of the Parties ........................................................................................................ 27 A. Mr. Jérôme Valcke ............................................................................................................. 27 B. FIFA ................................................................................................................................... 30 VI. Jurisdiction ............................................................................................................................... 33 A. The seat or domicile of the parties ..................................................................................... 33 B. The impact of the signing of the Order of Procedure ......................................................... 34 C. Validity of the arbitration agreement ................................................................................. 35 D. Scope of the arbitration agreement ..................................................................................... 35 VII. Admissibility ............................................................................................................................ 36 VIII. Applicable Law ........................................................................................................................ 36 IX. Preliminary legal issues ............................................................................................................ 36 A. Intertemporal issue in the application of the FCE .............................................................. 37 B. FIFA’s authority to impose the applicable sanction ........................................................... 39 a) The applicable legal framework ......................................................................................... 39 b) Relationship between Swiss labour law and association law ............................................. 40 c) No violation of the Swiss “ordre public” ........................................................................... 43 d) The ban and fine have an adequate contractual basis ......................................................... 43 e) No violation of the principle of ne bis in idem ................................................................... 44 X. Merits ....................................................................................................................................... 45 A. Burden and standard of proof ............................................................................................. 45 B. Violation of the FCE for involvement in the resale of FIFA World Cup Tickets .............. 46 a) Violation of Article 19 FCE ............................................................................................... 46 b) No violation of Articles 15 and 13, paras. 1-3 FCE ........................................................... 52 C. Violation of the FCE for travel expenses ........................................................................... 54 a) Conduct in breach of FIFA’s travel regulations ................................................................. 54 b) No violation of Articles 19 or 15 FCE ............................................................................... 57 c) Violation of Article 13, paras. 1 to 4 FCE .......................................................................... 58 D. Violation of the FCE for involvement in the FIFA-EON transaction ................................ 59 a) Violation of Article 19 FCE ............................................................................................... 59 b) Violation of Article 16 FCE ............................................................................................... 61 c) No violation of Article 13, paras. 1-4 FCE ........................................................................ 62 E. Violation for offering an improper benefit to the CFU ...................................................... 63 a) Violation of Article 10 FCE (2009 edition) ....................................................................... 63 CAS 2017/A/5003 Jérôme Valcke v. FIFA – Page 3 F. Violations of the FCE for failing to cooperate with the FIFA investigation ...................... 65 a) Destruction of evidence and failure to comply with requests ............................................ 66 b) Failure to agree to an in-person interview with the Investigatory Chamber ...................... 68 c) No violation of Articles 15 and 13, paras. 1-3 FCE ........................................................... 71 G. Applicable sanction ............................................................................................................ 72 H. Further or different motions ............................................................................................... 75 XI. Costs ......................................................................................................................................... 75 ***** I. INTRODUCTION 1. This appeal is brought by Mr. Jérome Valcke against a decision of the FIFA Appeal Committee (hereinafter the “Appeal Committee”) taken on 24 June 2016 (hereinafter the “Appealed Decision”) which (i) partially confirmed the decision of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee (hereinafter the “Adjudicatory Chamber”) taken on 10 February 2016, (ii) held that Mr. Valcke violated Articles 13 (“General Rules of Conduct”), 15 (“Loyalty”), 16 (“Confidentiality”), 18 (“Duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting”), 19 (“Conflicts of interest”), 20 (“Offering and accepting gifts and other benefits”) and 41 (“Obligation of the parties to collaborate”) of the FIFA Code of Ethics (2012 edition), and (iii) sanctioned Mr. Valcke with a ban of 10 years from taking part in any football-related activity at national and international level (Administrative, sports or any other) from 8 October 2015 and with a fine of CHF 100,000. II. PARTIES A. The Appellant 2. The Appellant, Mr. Jérôme Valcke, is the former FIFA Secretary General, i.e. “the chief executive officer (CEO) of FIFA”, according to the current FIFA Statutes, or “the chief executive of the general secretariat”, according to the previous versions of those Statutes. It is generally recognized that the Secretary General holds the second most powerful position within FIFA (as indeed is the case in many other international federations). 3. On 27 June 2007, Mr. Valcke was appointed by the FIFA Executive Committee to serve as “General Secretary” (position renamed as “Secretary General” as of the 2008 edition of the FIFA Statutes), following which he signed an employment contract on 2 July 2007. On 17 September 2015, the FIFA Emergency Committee suspended Mr. Valcke from his duties as
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