FIFA secretary general, Jerome Valcke, has been placed on compulsory leave until further notice.
A FIFA statement said it had “been made aware of a series of allegations involving the secretary general” after newspaper allegations on Thursday implicated Valcke in a scheme to sell World Cup tickets for above face value.
The 54-year-old Frenchman, who has held his role at FIFA since 2007, denied the “fabricated, outrageous” allegations.
The world football governing body has been engulfed by claims of widespread corruption since May when Swiss police raided a hotel in Zurich and arrested seven of its top executives.
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Sepp Blatter announced that he would stand down as president just days after winning re-election in June.
Valcke, who last month was considering standing to be the new president, is Blatter’s number two at the organisation but now faces a formal investigation by the FIFA ethics committee.
The governing body recently set up a taskforce to tackle corruption which aims to restore the integrity and reputation of the organisation.
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