First of the Seven FIFA Officials Arrested in FBI Corruption Probe During Raid on Zurich Hotel
>>> is Extradited to the United States
- Official – believed to be vice-president Jeffrey Webb – handed to US police
- Placed on flight to New York after agreeing to extradition earlier this month
- FIFA chiefs accused by U.S. of taking bribes worth more than $100million
Daily Mail UK, 16 July 2015
The first of the seven FIFA officials arrested in Zurich as part of the FBI corruption probe has been extradited to the United States.
The official – believed to be vice-president Jeffrey Webb – was detained in a dawn raid on May 27 at a luxury Zurich hotel, two days before FIFA's annual congress.
Switzerland's Federal Office of Justice said he was handed over to three U.S. police officers who accompanied him on the flight to New York.
FIFA vice-president Jeffrey Webb (pictured) is believed to be the first official to be extradited to the U.S after he was among seven football chiefs detained in Zurich for alleged racketeering, conspiracy and corruption
Webb agreed last week to be extradited, unlike six others who are contesting the move, after the United States sent Switzerland requests earlier this month.
It is alleged that in return for taking bribes to the tune of more than $100million, the officials awarded contracts for media, marketing and sponsorship rights to football tournaments in the United States and Latin America, routed through American banks.
If found guilty, the men – who are among 14 indicted by the FBI – will face around 20 years in prison.
Webb has been provisionally banned from his posts at FIFA and CONCACAF, the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football.
Neither his lawyer nor a U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman responded to requests for comment on Thursday.
The U.S. indictment describes Webb as using his influential positions to solicit bribes from sports marketing companies in exchange for the commercial rights to soccer matches.
Six other officials – Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha, Eugenio Figueredo, Rafael Esquivel, Jose Maria Marin and Costas Takkas – remain detained in Switzerland and are contesting their extradition.
An arrested FIFA official is shielded with a sheet as he is taken from the Baur du Lac hotel on May 27
Media gather outside the Hotel Baur-au-Lacon in Zurich on May 27 following the dawn raid against FIFA
U.S. authorities have said more indictments should follow and that FIFA President Sepp Blatter is a target of the widening case.
Under pressure from the investigation, and a separate Swiss federal probe of money laundering linked to FIFA's award of 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting rights, Blatter announced on June 2 that he would leave office within months.
Blatter, 79, has not been implicated in either enquiry and again strongly denied involvement in corruption in his column last week in the in-house publication FIFA Weekly.
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'I bear no responsibility for members of a government (the FIFA Executive Committee) I have not myself elected,' he wrote.
'The FIFA President must work with the people allotted him by the confederations.
'I therefore also bear no responsibility whatsoever for the behaviour of these ExCo members on their home turf,' he wrote.
Blatter
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An Executive Committee meeting on July 20 will lay down the timetable to determine who will lead the body forward, but sources close to Blatter say he has not ruled out the prospect of going back on his decision to step down.
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PROFILES OF THE FIFA OFFICIALS INDICTED IN FBI CORRUPTION PROBE
Jeffrey Webb - FIFA vice president and president of CONCACAF (Confederation Of North, Central America and the Caribbean Football Association). The 50-year-old was born and lives in the Cayman Islands. He is also the Cayman Islands Football Association president.
Eugenio Figueredo - Former footballer and now a Uruguayan FA executive. He was once president of CONMEBOL, the South American football federation.
Jack Warner - Former FIFA vice president and former president of CONCACAF. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, he resigned from all his positions in international football in 2011.
Eduardo Li - President of the Costa Rican Football Association.
Julio Rocha - President of the Nicaraguan Football Federation.
Costas Takkas - Former general secretary of the Cayman Islands Football Association.
Rafael Esquivel - President of the Venezuelan Football Federation since 1988.
Jose Maria Marin - Vice president of the Brazil football federation (CBF) and its former president. The CBF handed out controversial £16,000 Parmigiani watches at its congress in Sao Paulo a year ago, when Marin was overlord of the association.
Nicolas Leoz - Former CONMEBOL president between 1986 and 2013. He allegedly wanted the FA Cup named after him in exchange for a vote for England in its attempts to host the 2018 World Cup
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