economic crime, including corruption processes associated with bribes at Siemens, Ferrostaal and MAN SE. He also led the court process for the purchase of Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International by BayernLB. FIFA Ethics Committee Hans Joachim Eckert was elected to the FIFA Ethics Committee in 2011. On 17 July 2012, he was named chairman of the adjudicatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee by the FIFA Executive Committee. This decision was confirmed in May 2013 by a FIFA Congress. End of 2014, his work was criticized by the chief investigator of the FIFA Ethics Committee Michael J. Garcia. At the same time, Garcia stepped down from his position. In October 2015, the Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, chaired by Eckert, imposed a provisional suspension of 90 days against FIFA President Sepp Blatter, FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke and UEFA President Michel Platini. On 23 November 2015, Eckert opened the official proceedings against Blatter and Platini. Upon closure of the procedure, Eckert announced on 21 December 2015 the sentence and imposed upon both a ban of eight years as well as fines. He opened the case against Valcke at the beginning of January 2016. The judgment was delivered on 12 January 2016. Valcke was banned for 12 years and fined SFr.100.000. In May 2017 he was controversially told that he would not be renominated after he had already been invited and traveled to the FIFA Congress in Bahrain. In an interview with Deutschlandfunk he explained that critical persons would apparently rather be replaced. He was replaced by Vassilios Skouris. Sports Governance Unit Together with Cornel Borbély, the former chairman of the investigatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, and Marc Tenbücken, a communications expert, Borbély founded the Sports Governance Unit in November 2017, which advises sports associations, clubs and sponsors on good governance. Personal Eckert is a passionate mushroom picker. In his spare time he also visits a Realschule in the Bavarian Oberland to explain the judiciary system to students and to answer their questions. References 20th-century German judges 1948 births Living people FIFA officials 21st-century German judges