Swiss prosecutors seek prison sentence for PSG's Nasser Al Khelaifi

Prosecutors are appealing a verdict handed down in 2020 over a World Cup TV rights deal

Nasser Al Khelaifi was cleared of inciting aggravated criminal mismanagement in 2020. EPA

Swiss prosecutors are seeking jail sentences for Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al Khelaifi and Fifa's former secretary general Jerome Valcke over an allegedly corrupt World Cup TV rights deal.

Prosecutors are appealing the verdicts handed down to the two men after a 2020 trial in which Mr Al Khelaifi, the chairman of beIN Media, was acquitted and Valcke given a suspended sentence.

While Mr Al Khelaifi was cleared of inciting aggravated criminal mismanagement, Valcke was found guilty of a separate charge of forging documents related to the attribution of Italian and Greek World Cup TV rights.

Valcke was ordered to pay €1.65 million ($1.81m) in compensation to Fifa, including €400,000 in the main case, as well as 80,000 Swiss francs ($86,219) in legal costs.

On day two of the appeal hearing, federal prosecutor Cristina Castellote requested a 28-month prison sentence for Mr Al Khelaifi and 35 months for Valcke.

The two men were accused of a "corrupt agreement" over Qatari-owned broadcaster beIN's extension of its media rights in North Africa and the Middle East for the 2026 and 2030 World Cups.

Valcke was said to have sought the Qataris help in the summer of 2003 to buy a luxury villa in Sardinia, at a time when beIN was negotiating extending the media rights.

The prosecutor said Mr Al Khelaifi acquired the house for €5m, via a company that was transferred almost immediately to the brother of one of his close collaborators, before it was made available to Valcke.

The two men denied wrongdoing and said the deal was a private arrangement, unrelated to the contract concluded by beIN with Fifa in April 2014.