Prosecutor demands Valcke's emails

ZURICH (AP):

FIFA has been urged by Switzerland's attorney general to hand over emails used by Jerome Valcke, its secretary general who was suspended last week.

Valcke was implicated by a FIFA ticketing partner in using his FIFA and Google email accounts to discuss a 2014 World Cup black market tickets deal.

The office of Swiss federal prosecutor Michael Lauber has now stepped up pressure on FIFA to unblock access to Valcke's correspondence.

Lauber's spokesman, AndrÈ Marty, told the Associated Press yesterday that the prosecutor has filed a request directly to FIFA lawyers.

"I can confirm that we now want to have access to these sealed email accounts," Marty said.

"The OAG (office of the attorney general) asked FIFA to deliver all information coming from Mr Valcke's multiple email accounts," he said, adding that, so far, "FIFA didn't deliver this email information."

In a statement, FIFA said: "We are committed to cooperating with the authorities, and this is an ongoing process."

Valcke denies a ticket agent's claims that he sought cash from sales of top-category tickets for matches in Brazil he knew were being offered at several times face value.

Lauber is investigating possible criminal mismanagement and money laundering in FIFA's business.

FIFA released Valcke from his job last Thursday, hours after the allegations were made, and requested a formal investigation by the FIFA Ethics Committee.