KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: World football federation FIFA has welcomed an employment tribunal’s rejection of an appeal against its sacking in 2016 of financial director Markus Kattner.

In June 2016 lawyers conducting an internal investigation said disgraced former president Sepp Blatter, ex-secretary-general Jerome Valcke and Kattner had benefited improperly from bonuses totalling a combined 79million Swiss francs (£55m) over the previous five years.

It was claimed that two clauses in contract extensions granted to Valcke and Kattner in April 2011, shortly before Blatter’s successful campaign for re-election against Mohammed Bin Hamman, were contrary to Swiss law. All three men have always denied wrongdoing.

Kattner, a German, was banned by FIFA for 10 years last year for his role in the payments and bonuses scandal.

Now the the Zurich Labour Court, after a case lasting almost five years, has ruled that the dismissal of Kattner was justified and appropriate.

A FIFA statement said:

The Court determined that, given the breaches of loyalty committed by this former employee, it would have been inconceivable to allow him to continue working at FIFA. Consequently, his dismissal without notice was fully justified.

Mr Kattner initially claimed over CHF 10 million from FIFA as “compensation” for alleged wrongful termination. This claim was based on an employment contract signed with him by the previous FIFA administration on 31 May 2015 (four days after the arrests of numerous football officials at the Baur au Lac Hotel in Zurich). That claim was rejected in full by the Court.

The decision of the Zurich Labour Court is subject to appeal.

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