The US has submitted a formal request for Switzerland to extradite seven FIFA officials arrested in Zurich as part of a corruption probe that has rocked soccer’s world governing body.
The Swiss Federal Office of Justice yesterday said that the requests were received from the US embassy in Bern. The requests submitted late on Wednesday met a 40-day deadline since the seven were detained on May 27 in raids on a luxury hotel in FIFA’s home city.
All seven men detained in Zurich, including three current and former members of FIFA’s executive committee, have already objected to extradition. They face about 20 years in prison.
The widening US investigation already alleges bribery and racketeering worth more than US$150 million involving high-ranking FIFA officials over a 24-year span.
The US Department of Justice published an indictment of 14 soccer and marketing officials in May that alleged bribery linked to awarding broadcast rights for international tournaments in North and South America.
“These crimes are thought to have been agreed to and prepared in the USA, and payments were allegedly routed through US banks,” the Swiss office said in a statement yesterday.
The seven are to be heard by Zurich police and granted a 14-day period to respond to Swiss federal officials about the extradition request, the office said.
Swiss justice officials will then rule “within a few weeks” on whether to extradite them. That ruling can be appealed to Switzerland’s top criminal court and Supreme Court.
The seven men include FIFA vice president Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands and Eugenio Figueredo of Uruguay, who was arrested two days before his FIFA vice presidential term expired.
Costa Rican soccer federation president Eduardo Li was arrested two days before he was due to formally join FIFA’s executive committee.
Former Brazilian federation head Jose Maria Marin led last year’s World Cup local organizing committee and is a member of the FIFA panel organizing the men’s and women’s tournaments at next year’s Olympic Games.
The others are Venezuela Football Association president Rafael Esquivel; FIFA staffer Julio Rocha, a development officer from Nicaragua; and Costas Takkas, a Briton who works for CONCACAF president Webb.
The other seven men among the 14 indicted include disgraced former FIFA vice president Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago, and former FIFA executive committee member Nicolas Leoz of Paraguay, the longtime former president of South American governing body CONMEBOL.
A further four men have entered guilty pleas, which were unsealed in May. They include former FIFA executive panel member Chuck Blazer of the US and two sons of Warner.
The indictment revealed that Blazer admitted being part of a US$10 million bribe scheme with Warner for supporting South Africa’s successful bid to host the 2010 World Cup. A third South American FIFA voter was also involved, Blazer alleged.
FIFA has acknowledged that its secretary-general, Jerome Valcke, helped transfer the money through its accounts at South Africa’s request.
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