Markus Kattner, FIFA's finance director under Sepp Blatter who also served as acting secretary general, has been banned from all football-related activity for 10 years and fined one million Swiss francs ($1.056m) after being found guilty of conflicts of interest and abusing his position, the sport's world governing body announced Tuesday. The punishment was handed down by FIFA's ethics committee following an investigation opened in 2016 into German Kattner, the scandal-plagued body's former president Blatter, and former secretary general Jerome Valcke.
"The investigation into Mr Kattner covered various charges concerning bonus payments in relation to FIFA competitions that were paid to top FIFA management officials (including Mr Kattner), various amendments to and extensions of employment contracts, reimbursement of private legal costs, and Mr Kattner's duties as an official," FIFA said in a statement.
"In its decision, the adjudicatory chamber ruled that Mr Kattner had breached article 19 (Conflicts of interest) and article 25 (Abuse of position) of the FIFA Code of Ethics and sanctioned him with a ban from all football-related activity (administrative, sports or any other) at both national and international level for a period of ten years. In addition, a fine in the amount of one million Swiss francs has been imposed on Mr Kattner."
In his role as finance director, Kattner was accused along with Blatter and Valcke of being involved in a coordinated effort to "enrich themselves" to the tune of more than $80 million in often suspicious payments over a five-year period.
The disgraced Blatter and Valcke have already been banned from involvement in the sport. Blatter, who is 84, was president of FIFA between 1998 and 2015.
Kattner, now 49, joined FIFA in 2003. He was fired in May 2016 after FIFA started looking into millions of dollars of payments that the finance director, and acting general secretary after Valcke's departure, awarded himself.