Former FIFA vice president Eugenio Figueredo received millions of dollars in bribes throughout his career at the top of South American soccer, prosecutors claimed on Friday.
Figueredo, 83, was extradited from Switzerland and spent Christmas in jail pending a trial that could see him imprisoned for up to 15 years.
Prosecutor Juan Gomez said that evidence given by Figueredo showed clearly that the official was corrupted from the moment he joined the executive committee of CONMEBOL, the South American federation.
“From the time he became a member of the executive committee, he received huge sums of money from plans hatched by various members of CONMEBOL with the objective of maintaining a twisted form of corruption,” Gomez said in his initial report.
As president of CONMEBOL, the Uruguayan looked to distribute the money via “a network of corruption that hit South American football with impunity and persisted for decades.”
Gomez’s report said the system made it impossible for contractors to tender for marketing and TV rights for soccer tournaments organized by CONMEBOL.
“These actions caused harm to clubs and professional players in Uruguay, notably reducing the sums they could have received,” added Gomez, who in December 2013 received a complaint from the Uruguayan soccer players’ union over the actions of several officials, including Figueredo.
Figueredo was one of seven top FIFA officials arrested at a Zurich luxury hotel in May, a raid that kicked off an unprecedented crisis at world soccer’s governing body.
The US, which led the investigation, is also seeking to extradite Figueredo on charges of soliciting multimillion-dollar bribes from sports marketing firms.
Figueredo had agreed to be sent to Uruguay, but is fighting extradition to the US.
He was head of the Uruguayan Football Association from 1997 to 2006 and became CONMEBOL president in 2013.
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