US files formal extradition request for 7 FIFA officials

[webfact]

US files formal extradition request for 7 FIFA officials
GRAHAM DUNBAR, AP Sports Writer

GENEVA (AP) — The United States 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.

Switzerland's Federal Office of Justice said Thursday that the requests were received from the U.S. embassy in Bern. The expected demands submitted late Wednesday met a 40-day deadline since the seven were detained early 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 around 20 years in prison.

The widening American investigation already alleges bribery and racketeering worth more than $150 million involving high-ranking FIFA officials over a 24-year span.

The U.S. Department of Justice published an indictment of 14 soccer and marketing officials in May which alleged bribery linked to awarding broadcast rights for international tournaments in North and South America.

"These crimes are thought to have been agreed and prepared in the USA, and payments were allegedly routed through US banks," the Swiss justice ministry said in a statement Thursday.

The seven will be heard by Zurich cantonal (State) police and granted a 14-day period to respond to federal officials about the extradition request, the Swiss justice ministry 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 chief Jose Maria Marin led the 2014 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 FA chief 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.

Warner and Leoz, who left FIFA in 2011 and 2013, respectively, to avoid sanctions for unethical behavior, are fighting extradition to the U.S. from their home countries.

A further four men have entered guilty pleas which were unsealed in May. They include American former FIFA executive panel member Chuck Blazer and two sons of Warner.

The indictment revealed that Blazer admitted being part of a $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. FIFA and Valcke said the cash was believed to be for soccer projects for the African diaspora in the Caribbean, and was approved by Julio Grondona of Argentina, the chairman of FIFA's finance committee who died last year.

American law enforcement officials have confirmed that FIFA President Sepp Blatter is a target of the investigation which is expected to bring more indictments.

"Whoever accuses me of being corrupt has to prove it to me first," Blatter said in extracts of an interview released Wednesday by German weekly magazine Bunte. "But nobody can do that because I'm not corrupt."

Blatter said June 2 he would leave office within months, as pressure built from the American case and a separate Swiss federal investigation focused on possible money laundering linked to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting awards to Russia and Qatar, respectively.

Blatter cannot be extradited from his native Switzerland to the U.S. without his consent.

Still, he and Frenchman Valcke risk arrest in many countries. They did not travel to New Zealand for the Under-20 World Cup final played June 20 and will not go to Canada for the Women's World Cup final in Vancouver on Sunday.

Blatter was re-elected for a fifth four-year term on May 29, then announced his planned FIFA exit four days later.
___

Associated Press writer Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-07-03

[DLang]

Time to sweat boys, doing years in a US Federal prison wasn't on their retirement plan.

I'm certainly not a fan of the US justice system, but go get 'em Uncle Sam.

[rosst]

Time to sweat boys, doing years in a US Federal prison wasn't on their retirement plan.

I'm certainly not a fan of the US justice system, but go get 'em Uncle Sam.

Could not lie straight in bed, crooked as they come the whole damn lot. As for Blatter, he is just better at hiding it. No world tour for you in retirement buddy.

[RaoulDuke]

Its a pity that the US Dept of Justice does not show as much interest in serving justice to the bankers that caused the 2008 financial crisis (which is also the root cause of Greece's financial meltdown that stands to tear apart the EU). Its also sad how they have no interest in pursuing any of GW's warmonger cronies, who reaped in billions of dollars and destabilized 1/2 of the world by invading a country under obviously false pretenses.

Can anyone explain to me why the USA is even concerned about FIFA? There cannot be more than a few dozen non-Hispanic fans of professional 'soccer' in the entire country. Perhaps it is just a dog and pony show perpetrated by the American sports executives who want to make damn sure that the only football that ever succeeds in the USA is monopolized by the NFL. In any case, this is a pathetic farse by a country that is easily one of the most corrupt in the world, where corporate lobbyist write all the laws that get rubber-stamped by politicians who only need to please one or two donors in order to rake in more campaign money than any possible opponent could ever dream of.

[englishoak]

Id say its probably because US business isnt involved and probably jealous of missing out on all that corruption.

Must be quite irritating.

[Chicog]

Can anyone explain to me why the USA is even concerned about FIFA? There cannot be more than a few dozen non-Hispanic fans of professional 'soccer' in the entire country.

I was in Boston for the last world cup and every pub was packed out with US soccer fans for the US games, and still plenty of people for games that didn't involve them.

NBC paid $250 million for the last set of Premier League rights, and they aren't going to that for "a few dozen non-Hispanic fans".

Nearly 20 million people in the US watched the World Cup final on ABC and ESPN - and another 9 million on Univision.

• A total of 115.5 million Americans watched live Premier League football
• There was a 114 per cent growth from 2012-13 season to 2013-14 campaign
• Nine Premier League clubs toured the US in pre-season this year
• Manchester United played in front of sell-out 109,000 crowd in Michigan

Try again.

Edited July 4, 2015 by Chicog

[Jay Sata]

It appears likely that they will be extradited in which case they will implicate Blatter as part of the plea bargain.

This story should be fun to follow.

[Basil B]

He has already got his scapegoats lined up...

French and German presidents applied political pressure prior to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup votes, according to Fifa president Sepp Blatter.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/33401602

Yes, just waiting to see if any of the political pressure ended up in his bank account

[lifeincnx]

Can anyone explain to me why the USA is even concerned about FIFA? There cannot be more than a few dozen non-Hispanic fans of professional 'soccer' in the entire country.

I was in Boston for the last world cup and every pub was packed out with US soccer fans for the US games, and still plenty of people for games that didn't involve them.

NBC paid $250 million for the last set of Premier League rights, and they aren't going to that for "a few dozen non-Hispanic fans".

Nearly 20 million people in the US watched the World Cup final on ABC and ESPN - and another 9 million on Univision.

• A total of 115.5 million Americans watched live Premier League football
• There was a 114 per cent growth from 2012-13 season to 2013-14 campaign
• Nine Premier League clubs toured the US in pre-season this year
• Manchester United played in front of sell-out 109,000 crowd in Michigan

Try again.

Agreed and yet another clueless post about who or what we Americans are, enjoy, and follow. Oh, and just for the record, today the

U.S. won our THIRD Women's World Cup title.

Edited July 6, 2015 by lifeincnx

[lifeincnx]

Can anyone explain to me why the USA is even concerned about FIFA? There cannot be more than a few dozen non-Hispanic fans of professional 'soccer' in the entire country.

I was in Boston for the last world cup and every pub was packed out with US soccer fans for the US games, and still plenty of people for games that didn't involve them.

NBC paid $250 million for the last set of Premier League rights, and they aren't going to that for "a few dozen non-Hispanic fans".

Nearly 20 million people in the US watched the World Cup final on ABC and ESPN - and another 9 million on Univision.

• A total of 115.5 million Americans watched live Premier League football
• There was a 114 per cent growth from 2012-13 season to 2013-14 campaign
• Nine Premier League clubs toured the US in pre-season this year
• Manchester United played in front of sell-out 109,000 crowd in Michigan

Try again.

Agreed and yet another clueless post about who or what we Americans are, enjoy, and follow. Oh, and just for the record, today the

U.S. won our THIRD Women's World Cup title.

As an update to RaoulDukes's "few dozen non-Hispanic fans of professional 'soccer' in the entire [uSA]country"

There were 22.86 million viewers for Sunday’s 5-2 win over Japan making it the highest rated soccer game in the U.S. on a single network.

22.86 USA million viewers! Hmmm... that's about 1/3 of the entire United Kingdom's population.

[h90]

Be friendly to Russia while the NSA is recording all your phone calls is stupid....

[Chicog]

Can anyone explain to me why the USA is even concerned about FIFA? There cannot be more than a few dozen non-Hispanic fans of professional 'soccer' in the entire country.

I was in Boston for the last world cup and every pub was packed out with US soccer fans for the US games, and still plenty of people for games that didn't involve them.

NBC paid $250 million for the last set of Premier League rights, and they aren't going to that for "a few dozen non-Hispanic fans".

Nearly 20 million people in the US watched the World Cup final on ABC and ESPN - and another 9 million on Univision.

• A total of 115.5 million Americans watched live Premier League football
• There was a 114 per cent growth from 2012-13 season to 2013-14 campaign
• Nine Premier League clubs toured the US in pre-season this year
• Manchester United played in front of sell-out 109,000 crowd in Michigan

Try again.

Agreed and yet another clueless post about who or what we Americans are, enjoy, and follow. Oh, and just for the record, today the

U.S. won our THIRD Women's World Cup title.

As an update to RaoulDukes's "few dozen non-Hispanic fans of professional 'soccer' in the entire [uSA]country"

There were 22.86 million viewers for Sunday’s 5-2 win over Japan making it the highest rated soccer game in the U.S. on a single network.

22.86 USA million viewers! Hmmm... that's about 1/3 of the entire United Kingdom's population.

That was at the start. By the end of the broadcast it peaked at 30.9 million.