By Andrew Warshaw
May 24 – And another one bites the dust. Markus Kattner, FIFA’s interim secretary-general and long-time director of finance, has become the latest high-profile figure linked with the organisation’s corruption-tainted past to be thrown out.
In the briefest of statements, FIFA said Kattner had been dismissed following an internal investigation that had “uncovered breaches of his fiduciary responsibilities in connection with his employment contract.”
FIFA would not comment further but unconfirmed reports claimed Kattner, the latest victim of FIFA’s crackdown on miscreants, had a little-known bonus agreement from which he profited to the tune of millions of dollars whilst working under Sepp Blatter.
The low-key Kattner, who rarely courted publicity during more than a decade at the heart of FIFA’s administration, reluctantly played a more public role since taking over as interim general secretary from the sacked and banned Jerome Valcke eight months ago. Earlier this month, he helped conduct proceedings at the first FIFA Congress under new president Gianni Infantino.
But now he finds himself surplus to requirements, ironically just like Valcke who he temporarily replaced when the Frenchman was given a 12-year ban, and just like Blatter (pending his Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing), Michel Platini and a raft of other senior officials found guilty of wrongdoing in one way or another.
Kattner joined FIFA in 2003 as director of finance, becoming deputy secretary general in 2007. Given his links with the past, the timing of his sacking did not come as a total surprise. At the recent Congress in Mexico, Infantino announced that United Nations official Fatma Samoura would start work next month as his new permanent secretary general, the assumption being Kattner would revert to his previous roles but perhaps not for long given the new regime at the helm.
Whilst his dismissal is not connected to the infamous SFr2 million “disloyal payment” made to Platini and approved by Blatter in 2011, he has long faced questions about whether was aware of the so-called “gentleman’s agreement” and why, if he was, he gave it his blessing as the organisation’s director of finance.
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