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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 1 MARCH 2017 20 FORMER FIFA secretary gen- eral Jerome Valcke has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against his 10-year ban from football, the tribunal said yesterday. The Frenchman, whose job was to ensure the smooth running of FIFA and in particular its f lag- ship World Cup tournament, was right-hand man to now banned president Sepp Blatter before both were embroiled in a corruption scandal which swept soccer's governing body in 2015. In a separate development, former FIFA executive commit- tee member Amos Adamu was banned for two years for ethics violations committed in 2010 - the second time the Nigerian of- ficial has been suspended. Valcke was found guilty by FIFA ethics judge Hans-Joachim Eckert of misconduct over the sale of World Cup tickets, abuse of travel expenses, attempting to sell TV rights below their mar- ket value and destruction of evi- dence. He was initially banned for 12 years, which was reduced to 10 by FIFA's own appeal committee last June. CAS said the Frenchman "seeks to have the challenged decision set aside in order for the sanction imposed on him to be lifted definitively". Valcke, fired from his post in January last year, is still facing another investigation by FIFA and criminal proceedings in Switzerland. Last March, the office of Swiss attorney-general Michael Lau- ber said Valcke was suspected of criminal mismanagement and other offences. He denies any wrongdoing. In September, FIFA's ethics committee opened a new inves- tigation into Blatter, Valcke and former finance director Markus Kattner for possible ethics vio- lations which included bribery and corruption. That investi- gation, in which all three deny wrongdoing, is still under way. CAS has already rejected ap- peals from Blatter and former European football boss Michel Platini, who was also embroiled in the scandal, although in the latter's case it cut the ban from six years to four. Valcke joined FIFA in 2003 as marketing director but was fired in December 2006 for his part in botched sponsorship nego- tiations with credit card firms MasterCard Inc and Visa Inc. Within months of that settle- ment, Valcke was not only back at FIFA but was at the helm of the administration as secretary general, answering directly to Blatter. He was widely credited with getting the 2010 and 2014 World Cup tournaments, held in South Africa and Brazil respectively, up and running in time after de- lays in the preparations. Adamu, previously banned for three years in November 2010, was found guilty by Eckert of in- fringing rules relating to general conduct, loyalty and conf licts of interest. Adamu was first banned fol- lowing a Sunday Times inves- tigation when he was secretly filmed by journalists, posing as lobbyists, asking for $800,000 to inf luence his vote in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding process. He denied wrongdoing but lost an appeal to CAS. FIFA's ethics committee said the new sanction was connected to "his involvement in the or- ganisation of an event in 2010" but did not say whether it was the same one for which he had originally been banned. Sport SPORTTODAY FOOTBALL Shakespeare favourite to replace Ranieri at Leicester CRAIG Shakespeare is the book- makers' favourite to succeed Clau- dio Ranieri as manager of Leicester City after taking charge of Mon- day's impressive 3-1 victory over Liverpool. Assistant coach since 2011, Shakespeare is now 5-4 favourite ahead of Dutchman Guus Hid- dink, former England manager Roy Hodgson and Nigel Pearson, the man who was succeeded by Rani- eri. "It appears that the shortlist for Leicester manager is down to four with Craig Shakespeare leading the way following Leicester's vic- tory over Liverpool," a spokesman for bookmakers William Hill said on Tuesday. As job interviews go, Shakespeare could hardly have done better on Monday as champions Leicester produced their best display of the season in the Premier League. Jamie Vardy scored twice and Danny Drinkwater once as Leices- ter ended a run of five successive defeats to move out of the relega- tion zone. "I have said before that, do I think I'm capable of it? Yes. Does it faze me? No," Shakespeare said. "But I think it is the powers-that- be, the owners, who decide and do their job, it is their diligence to look. I am sure they will do that." Craig Shakespeare giving instructions Former FIFA secretary general Valcke appeals 10-year soccer ban Former FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke