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Markus Kattner

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Markus Kattner
Secretary-General of FIFA (acting)
In office
17 September 2015 – 23 May 2016
Preceded byJérôme Valcke
Succeeded byFatma Samoura
Personal details
Born (1970-09-24) 24 September 1970 (age 54)
Bayreuth, West Germany
NationalityGerman-Swiss
OccupationBusiness consultant
Football administrator

Markus Kattner (born 24 September 1970 in Bayreuth, West Germany) is a German-Swiss business consultant and former association football executive.[1] He served as acting Secretary-General of FIFA from September 2015 to May 2016, but was dismissed without notice after being accused of paying himself bonuses worth millions of US Dollars during a previous stint as FIFA's director of Finance.[2][3][4] Markus Kattner has begun legal proceedings against FIFA before the competent court in Zurich as he believes his dismissal to be unjustified.[5] The Zurich High Court ruled in Markus Kattner's favour and decided in its ruling of 4 October 2022 that his dismissal without notice was unjustified.[6] In his complaint, Kattner claimed that "the reasons for his dismissal were pretextual and inaccurate".[7]

Biography

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Markus Kattner grew up in Munich and for four years he played basketball in the second division of the Basketball Bundesliga.[8] He graduated with a bachelor's degree in engineering from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and completed a doctorate degree at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL, 1999).[9]

Before joining FIFA, Kattner worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company in Switzerland along Philippe Blatter, a nephew of FIFA's president Joseph Blatter, and the pair worked together while advising the Federation.[1] In 2003, he joined FIFA as director of Finance and in September 2015, when Jerome Valcke was sacked for financial irregularities, Kattner took over as acting secretary-general.[10] Kattner himself was sacked in May 2016, after being accused of paying himself bonuses worth millions of US Dollars over a six-year period (2008–2014).[11] Markus Kattner has begun legal proceedings against FIFA before the competent court in Zurich as he believes his dismissal to be unfair, maintaining that the compensation payments were perfectly above board and did not break a single FIFA statute.[5] In June 2020, he received a 10 years ban from football and was fined the amount of CHF 1,000,000 after an investigation into bonus payments.[12][13]

Personal life

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Kattner has German-Swiss dual nationality and is married with three daughters. He is a Bayern Munich supporter and also likes running, skiing and playing the piano.[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b Dunbar, Graham (23 May 2016). "FIFA fires finance director Kattner over bonus payments". Associated Press. Retrieved 24 May 2016. Kattner joined FIFA as director of finance in 2003 from the McKinsey consultancy firm, where he worked with the former FIFA president's nephew, Philippe Blatter, on a project advising the soccer body.
  2. ^ Harding, Luke (3 June 2016). "Blatter, Valcke and Kattner awarded themselves £55m, say Fifa lawyers". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  3. ^ Critchley, Mark (3 June 2016). "Fifa corruption: Sepp Blatter, Jerome Valcke and Markus Kattner 'profited by more than £55m' through wrongdoing". The Independent. Retrieved 5 June 2016.
  4. ^ Conway, Richard (23 May 2016). "Fifa scandal: Markus Kattner sacked over bonus payments". BBC Sport. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  5. ^ a b "Is FIFA's personnel purge backfiring? Kattner to sue FIFA for unfair dismissal - Inside World Football". Inside World Football. 2016-09-28. Retrieved 2017-11-22.
  6. ^ Felber, Tom (2023-01-17). "Obergericht urteilt über Entlassung Fifa-Generalsekretär Kattner". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in Swiss High German). ISSN 0376-6829. Retrieved 2024-01-16.
  7. ^ "Zürcher Obergericht – Entlassener Finanzchef: Fifa soll zehn Millionen zahlen". Tages-Anzeiger (in German). 2023-01-17. Retrieved 2024-01-16.
  8. ^ a b "Acting Secretary General". Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Archived from the original on April 28, 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2016. He graduated with a degree in engineering from Munich's Technical University and later obtained a PHD from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. An avid sports fan, Kattner was an active basketball player, especially for the four years he played in the second division in Germany. Naturally he is also a football fan, whose favourite club is Bayern Munich. Dr Kattner has dual Swiss-German nationality and is married with three daughters. His hobbies other than football include running, skiing and playing piano.
  9. ^ Kattner, Markus (29 October 1999). Beitrag zum Entwurf von Rahmen mit Verbundknoten im Hochbau [Contribution to the design of frames with composite nodes in building construction] (Thesis) (in German). École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  10. ^ "Markus Kattner takes over as FIFA secretary general". Marca. 18 September 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  11. ^ Gibson, Owen (23 May 2016). "Fifa fires acting deputy secretary general Markus Kattner over bonus payments". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  12. ^ "Markus Kattner: Ex-Fifa secretary general banned for 10 years". BBC Sport. 30 June 2020.
  13. ^ "Decision of the adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee" (PDF). fifa.com. 4 March 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
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