FIFA - secretary general Jerome Valcke sacked

Jerome Valcke

World football's governing body FIFA has dismissed secretary general Jerome Valcke.

The Frenchman, 55, is currently suspended from all football activities for his alleged involvement in a scheme to profit from World Cup ticket sales.

FIFA has recommended that he should be banned from football for nine years.

Valcke, who was appointed in 2007, also faces bribery allegations, but denies any wrongdoing.

"The FIFA emergency committee decided, on 9 January 2016, to dismiss Jerome Valcke from the position of FIFA secretary general with immediate effect," said a FIFA statement.

FIFA's ethics committee said on 7 January it had decided to open "formal adjudicatory proceedings" against Valcke after studying a report submitted by its investigatory chamber.

Valcke, effectively the number two behind president Sepp Blatter, has been accused of being party to a potential $10m (£6.8m) bribe paid to Jack Warner, the former head of the North and Central America football governing body Concacaf, in return for his vote and backing to South Africa's successful bid to host the 2010 World Cup.

Blatter, the outgoing president of world football's governing body, and vice-president Michel Platini were both suspended for eight years in December following a FIFA ethics investigation.