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FA chairman Dyke returns gift watch to FIFA

By Mike Collett

LONDON (Reuters) - After nearly 10 months of legal wrangling, English FA chairman Greg Dyke has returned a 16,000-pound watch to FIFA and no longer faces disciplinary action for keeping it.

Dyke was one of 65 international officials who received the Parmigiani watches as presents from the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) before last year's World Cup.

He claimed he was unaware of its value, stored it in a bag at home and never used it, but when he was told keeping it broke FIFA's ethics rules he offered to donate it to the FA's charity partner Breast Cancer Care as part of a fundraising initiative.

He has now sent it back, however.

"Mr Greg Dyke has returned the CBF Parmigiani watch," the adjudicatory chamber of FIFA's Ethics Committee said in a statement on Tuesday.

"As a consequence, the adjudicatory chamber has decided to close the proceedings in respect of a possible breach of the FIFA Code of Ethics."

Dyke told football writers last month he had no need for the watch.

"It has been in a bag in my study at home ever since I got back from the World Cup. You get a lot of present bags on official visits and to be honest, I hardly ever look at any of them."

($1 = 0.6719 pounds)

(Editing by Ed Osmond)