FIFA slaps former South American football head with CHF1 million bribery fine
World football governing body FIFA has banned former Paraguayan football president Juan Ángel Napout from the sport for life and fined him CHF1 million ($1.01 million) for bribery.
In a statementExternal link released on Thursday, Zurich-based FIFA announced that an independent Ethics Committee has found the former president of the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) as well as a former FIFA vice-president guilty of bribery in violation of the FIFA Code of Ethics.
“The investigation proceedings against Mr Napout referred to bribery schemes during the period from 2012 to 2015 in relation to his role in awarding contracts to companies for the media and marketing rights to (South American Football Confederation) CONMEBOL competitions,” FIFA said in a statement.
In 2015, Napout was arrested in Zurich and extradited to the United States to face charges related to a multimillion-dollar bribery schemes for marketing and broadcast rights linked to football tournaments in Latin America. Several other former football officials were arrested in 2015 for their involvement in the scandal.
Napout had already been sentenced a year ago to nine years in prison by a New York court for accepting bribes of about $10.5 million.
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