One of the seven FIFA officials held in Switzerland as part of an investigation into massive corruption in soccer’s world governing body has been extradited to the US, the Swiss Ministry of Justice said yesterday.
Swiss authorities last week confirmed that one of the FIFA suspects wanted by the US had accepted extradition and that the prisoner transfer was likely to be approved quickly.
Ministry spokesman Raphael Frei declined to name the official, saying only that he was extradited on Wednesday.
“He was handed over to a three-man US police escort in Zurich who accompanied him on the flight to New York,” the spokesman said in a statement.
The Wall Street Journal on Friday last week reported that Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands, a former FIFA vice-president, was the suspect who agreed to be sent to the US. All seven FIFA officials wanted by US prosecutors were arrested in a dawn raid on a Zurich hotel on May 27, accused of involvement in more than US$150 million of bribes given for marketing deals for soccer tournaments in North and South America.
According to Swiss authorities, the extradited man is accused by the US Department of Justice of pocketing millions in connection with the sale of marketing rights to several sports marketing firms.
He allegedly took bribes while selling rights for World Cup matches, regional tournaments and championships in North and South America.
The six remaining FIFA officials wanted by the US authorities — all from South America or the CONCACAF zone of North and Central America and the Caribbean — have not yet agreed to be extradited.
Aside from Webb, the group includes Eugenio Figueredo from Uruguay — also an ex-FIFA vice president — Costa Rican Eduardo Li, who was supposed to join the FIFA Executive Committee in May.
There was also Brazilian soccer head Jose Maria Marin, Nicaraguan Julio Rocha and Costas Takkas, a Briton who worked for the Cayman Islands federation and Rafael Esquivel, president of the Venezuelan Football Federation.
The arrests ignited an unprecedented crisis at FIFA, with the body’s president Sepp Blatter ultimately agreeing to stand down. Blatter, 79, has denied any wrongdoing, saying he bears no responsibility for any misdeeds committed by his deputies.
The extradition of the FIFA suspect comes ahead of a meeting in Zurich on Monday, when the committee is expected to set out the timetable to determine the election for Blatter’s replacement.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS