FIFA Exec Fired For Giving Himself Millions Of Dollars In Secret Bonuses

Yesterday, Markus Kattner was the interim secretary general of FIFA, a post he stepped into when his predecessor, Jérôme Valcke, was suspended for all sorts of shady money deals. Yesterday, the most prominent news clippings his name popped up were in relation to his awareness of the secret payment between Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini that ultimately brought those two FIFA heavyweights down. Today, Kattner has been fired after an internal investigation sniffed out a covert plot he concocted that paid him millions of dollars that almost no one knew about.

FIFA hasn’t been very forthcoming about the specifics of the matter, only stating that Kattner has been fired for “breaches of his fiduciary responsibilities” in their three-sentence public announcement of the dismissal. The Daily Mail offers more insight:

FIFA has fired finance director and interim secretary general Markus Kattner after an internal investigation revealed he got irregular bonus payments worth millions of dollars.

Kattner was due the payments over a six-year period from 2008-14 from additions to his employment contract, a person familiar with the FIFA investigation said Monday.

The extra payments were known to then-President Sepp Blatter and then-secretary general Jerome Valcke, Kattner’s immediate boss in that period.

“We don’t yet understand why these payments were made,” the person said on condition of anonymity as details of the investigation are confidential. “These contract provisions were not known widely and not to the appropriate officers at FIFA.”

At FIFA, the names may change from time to time, but the behavior doesn’t.

[ Daily Mail]