Valcke at CAS to appeal 10-year corruption ban

Valcke was given an initial 12-year ban, reduced by two years on appeal, by FIFA’s ethics committee over a ticket scam at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

“I don’t know whether a sentence is unfair but I have come here to defend myself and obtain a fairer decision,” the former chief lieutenant to disgraced ex-FIFA boss Sepp Blatter told the press before his hearing.

“I always did my job in the best way possible and I always favoured FIFA’s interests.

“Even if in divorce you go from love to hate, I don’t understand all this hate,” Valcke complained, although he acknowledged he had no future at FIFA even if his appeal was successful.

“There’s no place for me in this domain, not because I’m disgusted or hurt but just because a chapter has ended in a brutal maner.

“In life you need to know how to turn the page.”

Valcke’s lawyer Stephane Ceccaldi added: “The objective today is to ask for the ban to be lifted.

“Mr Valcke is not allowed to have any contact with football for the next ten years, a sanction that is in itself particularly questionable.

“We are hoping that his career is not over,” Ceccaldi said.

The 56-year-old Frenchman, employed by FIFA from 2003 to January 2016, was sacked by football’s ruling body over his involvement in black market ticket sales and misconduct in television deals.

Valcke’s fall from grace came as part of a massive corruption scandal that shook FIFA’s foundations, with Blatter banned for six years on charges relating to a two million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros) payment to then-UEFA chief Michel Platini.

Platini was also suspended from football for four years.

Valcke, now based near Barcelona where he runs an events management company, is also the subject of a Swiss prosecutors investigation over “various acts of criminal mismanagement” connected with ticket sales.