FIFA fires deputy secretary following discovery of secret bonus scheme

FIFA-logo
FIFA-logo

FIFA’s deputy secretary general Markus Kattner has been “fired with immediate effect”, after it was discovered that there existed a secret bonus scheme that paid out millions of dollars over a period of years.

Kattner took over as acting secretary general since his predecessor Jérôme Valcke was suspended and then banned from football for 12 years. The 45-year-old becomes the latest senior FIFA executive to be fired, banned or suspended following the discovery of alleged wrongdoing.

He has been dismissed immediately and in a statement, FIFA said it said that an ongoing internal investigation had “uncovered breaches of fiduciary responsibilities in connection with his employment”.

Sources close to the investigation claim that undeclared bonus payments running to millions of dollars had been paid between 2008 and 2014 under an arrangement which only a few people were aware of including Sepp Blatter and Valcke.

The payments reportedly came to knowledge at the end of last week during an internal probe by the US law firm Quinn Emmanuel because of the ongoing as a result of an ongoing search of millions of documents.

FIFA’s ethics committee is now likely open an investigation against the German official.

Arrow to top