Jerome Valcke, the former right-hand man of ex-FIFA president Sepp Blatter has appealed against his 10-year ban from football.
Valcke, who was secretary general of the sport’s world governing body, was banned last year for his alleged involvement in a scheme to profit from World Cup ticket sales.
The Frenchman, 56, has now asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) to overturn the sanction.
Valcke has always maintained he has done “absolutely nothing wrong”.
He was originally suspended for 12 years and fined 100,000 Swiss francs (£70,800) by Fifa, though the length of the ban was later reduced.
As well as Valcke being implicated in the World Cup tickets scheme, Fifa’s ethics committee said he had “acted against Fifa’s best interests and caused considerable financial damage” by taking private flights for sightseeing trips with his family at the organisation’s expense.
It was also critical of his involvement in the sale of television rights for below market value and said he “deliberately tried to obstruct the ongoing proceedings against him by attempting to delete or deleting several files and folders relevant to the investigation”.
Former president Blatter was also sanctioned by Fifa for ethics breaches. His attempt to overturn a six-year ban was rejected by Cas in December.
He was originally a journalist with a French TV station Canal+ and was appointed chief executive officer at Sport+ in 1997.
In 2003 he moved to FIFA as their Director of Marketing & TV, under the Presidency of Sepp Blatter.
Besides his first language, French, Valcke speaks English, German and Spanish.
He is married and has two children.
