Jérôme Valcke (born 6 October 1960) is a French football administrator, best known as the former Secretary General of FIFA (the international governing body of the sport). He was fired on 13 January 2016 as a result of allegations arising from the ongoing 2015 FIFA corruption case. Originally a journalist with a French TV station Canal+, in 1997 he was appointed chief executive officer at Sport+. In 2003, he moved to FIFA as their Director of Marketing & TV, under the Presidency of Sepp Blatter. He was released on 12 December 2006 due to his role in negotiating FIFA sponsorship contracts with rival credit card companies Visa and MasterCard. In 2007, he returned to FIFA, being appointed Secretary General by Blatter, succeeding Urs Linsi. He was relieved of his duties on 17 September 2015, and then provisionally banned from all football on 8 October 2015 for a period of 90 days, extended on expiry for another 45 days, before finally being dismissed. On 12 January 2016, Valcke was banned by the FIFA Ethics Committee until 2028 and fined 100,000 Swiss francs. On 28 February 2017, Valcke appealed against the ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). This appeal was subsequently dismissed by the CAS on 27 July 2018 and the FIFA Ethics Committee's original ruling was upheld. Career Valcke was employed as a journalist at the French TV company Canal+. From 1991 until 1997 he held the office of deputy chief of sport. In 1997, he took over the position of chief executive officer at Sport+. FIFA Director of Marketing In the summer of 2003, Valcke switched to the international football federation FIFA in Zürich and took the position of Director of Marketing & TV. Visa negotiation controversy A New York court found on 7 December 2006 that Valcke had lied in his role as marketing director for negotiating sponsor agreements with the rival VISA, despite the existing agreement of FIFA conducted with the long-time partner MasterCard and thus violated the right of first negotiation of MasterCard. Because of this, FIFA was fined USD$60 million. Despite the ruling, Valcke protested his innocence, stating "I feel I am clean . . . I don't have the feeling that we have been so dirty." FIFA president Sepp Blatter released Valcke, along with three other FIFA employees, on 12 December 2006 from his job as marketing director. FIFA released a statement