The federal prosecutor’s office in Brooklyn, New York, announced in a press release the “additional distribution of approximately $92 million to compensate for the losses suffered by Fifa, the world football organization, Concacaf (Confederation of North American North, Central America and the Caribbean), the Conmebol (South American football confederation) and various national football federations, referred to as + victims +”.
This measure “marks our commitment to return to the victims of the money obtained by corruption and fraud (…) which will be reused in the interest of the sport”, praised the Brooklyn prosecutor Breon Peace, recalling that in the shutter American “Fifagate” more than 50 natural and legal persons from 20 countries had been prosecuted.
The affair broke out in May 2015 with the spectacular arrest of seven world football leaders in Zurich and which led a few months later to the departure of Sepp Blatter, president of Fifa since 1998, who was succeeded by Gianni Infantino.
This concerned a system of bribes and “racketeering” organized by football officials in South America and Central America, in exchange for the awarding of TV broadcasting rights for competitions, including the Copa America.
Instructed in the United States, the “Fifagate” notably resulted in the sentencing to nine years in prison of the Paraguayan Juan Angel Napout, former president of Conmebol, and to four years in prison of the Brazilian José Maria Marin, former leader of the federation. Brazilian.
