Since Monday, December 2, Nasser Al-Khelaifi is heard by the Swiss magistrates, in Berne, at the seat of the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Swiss Confederation (MPC). The Qatari president of Paris-Saint-Germain is invited to explain, as he had already done two years earlier, in the context of the criminal case against him, in October 2017, for " active private corruption ».
He is suspected by the Swiss courts of having, in his capacity as director of the BeIN Media group, offered "Undue advantages in relation to the granting of media rights in certain countries with respect to the 2026 and 2030 World Cups" Jérôme Valcke, former number 2 of the International Football Federation (FIFA). The latter, also subject to the investigation of the MPC, is also questioned this week in Bern.
At the end of this series of hearings which closes the investigation, the lawyers of Mr. Al-Khelaïfi requested the classification without continuation of the procedure and transmitted to the MPC an economic analysis report focused on the agreement of 2014 which secures the granting to BeIn Media of the rights of the 2026 and 2030 Worlds.
This contract, sealed without tendering (as was the case for other regional contracts), calls the MPC. It was signed by Mr. Al-Khelaifi for $ 480 million.
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The contract with BeIn Media 2014
The criminal case against the boss of the PSG concerns Gianni Infantino, the President of FIFA since 2016. privileged interlocutor of Mr. Al-Khelaïfi when he was Secretary General of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), from 2009 to 2016, Mr. Infantino did not never tried to cancel The 2014 contract, as observed by a relative of the file. Moreover, he has never hidden his embarrassment since the filing of the complaint of the FIFA with the Swiss justice, in December 2016.
If the federation has announced, in the autumn of 2017, to have opened a preliminary investigation into the "Al-Khelaïfi-Valcke" case, no procedure has been conducted thoroughly by the investigating chamber of the ethics committee. "Independent" of the world body. More than two years after the start of the criminal case, the internal court of FIFA does not seem to have seized the file. " The case is still in progress "Replies the federation without further details.
In October 2015, a few days after the opening of criminal proceedings against former FIFA President Joseph Blatter, the Ethics Committee was quick to suspend him. He also banned Michel Platini, then boss of UEFA and heard as a witness assisted by the MPC, because of the case of the payment of two million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros) that he did, in 2011, Mr. Blatter. Jérôme Valcke, for his part, had been struck off ten years by the FIFA Ethics Committee in 2016, a few months after the opening of a criminal investigation against him.
Controversial contract with Al-Jazeera 2010
"Al-Khelaïfi affair" puts Mr. Infantino even more uncomfortable that another contract sealed in 2010 between the Qatari chain Al-Jazeera and FIFA interests French justice, as part of its investigation on the controversial attribution of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Revealed in March by the British newspaper The Sunday Times, this agreement was signed in November 2010 by Nasser Al-Khelaïfi. It guarantees the granting to Al-Jazeera television rights of the Worlds 2018 and 2022 against 300 million dollars.
The contract was accompanied by a special clause under which Al-Jazeera would pay FIFA a bonus of $ 100 million in case of victory of Qatar in the vote of award of the World Cup 2022, organized on December 2, 2010. New days after the emirate's triumph in the polls, the contract was initialed by the FIFA leadership.
If the bonus is part of FIFA's business practices (US channels Fox and NBC had promised a bonus of $ 302 million in case of victory of the United States, Canada and Mexico in the award vote of the 2026 World ), such a clause is incompatible with the ethical rules of the instance if the company concerned is directly related to the candidate country for the organization of a World Cup. However, Al-Jazeera was launched in 1996 by ex-emir Hamad Al-Thani and is partly financed by the State of Qatar.
according to Mediapart, Infantino learned in January 2018, by his services, this special clause and did not transmit this information to the ethics committee of FIFA. Which did not open an investigation. Contacted by The worldthe federation did not want to comment on this point.
The secret meetings between Infantino and Lauber
According to our information, the court transmitted this controversial contract of 2010 – like all television rights agreements – to the Swiss public prosecutor's office in 2015, after the filing of a complaint by FIFA in November 2014. However, the MPC did not report to the French court that he was in possession of the contract. Contacted by The world, the MPC responds that it does not currently provides no information on criminal procedure. "
Nasser Al-Khelaïfi's hearing by the Swiss prosecutor's office comes as Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber has been removed from FIFA-related investigations in June, and is subject to a disciplinary investigation for meeting with three informally Mr Infantino.
These appointments are " simply an illustration of the will of FIFA (Complainant in the proceedings of the MPC) to co-operate and assist the Attorney General's Office in its work ", ensures the international federation.
In June 2017, during their last known meeting, Mr Lauber and Mr Infantino met at the Hotel Schweizerhof in Bern. Qatar's ambassador to Switzerland is a year-round visitor at this establishment. Which belongs to a company related to a sovereign fund … qatari.
