After months of trials and a lot of stress, we know the final verdict on the PSG chairman’s corruption accusations from Switzerland.
PSG chairman, Nasser Al-Khelaifi was accused of corruption by the Swiss government last year. Today, we finally have the final verdict ruled at a Switzerland courtroom after months of trials. Initially, several club owners and UEFA were accusing Nasser of paying Jerome Valcke with private property as a bribe.
The reason was to secure the 2026 and 2030 World Cup broadcast rights for his channel, BeIn Sports. Valcke was the main secretary at FIFA back then, which led to a huge investigation that got him convicted. But Nasser maintained his innocence until the very end of the process, he always kept the same narrative of what actually took place.
After finding Valcke guilty of charges, the Swiss government decided to hand him a suspended 120-day sentence and a €1,65 million fine for the damage done. After the trial, the 3-year sentence that was demanded for Valcke to be suspended, and the charges were dropped.
Nasser also gets his charges dropped.
Even though Valcke’s charges were dropped, FIFA still punished him with a 10-year ban for attempting to sell World Cup tickets illegally. This punishment came into effect back in 2016 and remains upheld to this day.
But Nasser’s story wasn’t a major problem because he always trusted the process. Also, the group of lawyers that represents him is one of the best in the world. After getting to know the final verdict of the charges dropped against him, Al-Khelaifi spoke to the BBC about his relief.
“This verdict is a total vindication. It restores my faith in the rule of law and in due process, after four years of baseless allegations, fictitious charges and constant smears of my reputation – all of which have been proven to be completely and wholly unsubstantiated.”
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