By Andrew Warshaw
November 10 – The president of the Colombian Football Federation Luis Bedoya has resigned unexpectedly, prompting immediate speculation that his decision was linked to the FIFA corruption scandal. Although Bedoya said he was stepping down for “personal reasons,” government sources were quoted as saying he had flown to New York last week.
Bedoya, who had been in charge since 2006, was not one of the seven high-profile officials arrested in Zurich in May just before the FIFA congress but shortly afterwards he said he would step down if any irregularities were found in his own financial affairs.
Bedoya has also resigned as a vice-president of CONMEBOL and will almost certainly lose his place on the FIFA executive committee, effectively reducing the confederation’s participation to a single member: FIFA vice-president Juan Angel Napout of Paraguay.
CONMEBOL is allotted three places on the exco but Marco Polo Del Nero, the Brazilian FA president who famously made a quick getaway just as the Zurich Seven were detained by police on behalf of the US Department of Justice, has not attended the last three meetings.
“Luis Bedoya Giraldo has submitted his irrevocable resignation for personal reasons as president and member of the executive committee of the Colombian Football Federation as of today,” a statement said.
The reputation of CONMEBOL, which is striving to clean up its act, has been just as badly tarnished as that of FIFA. Two former presidents – Nicolas Leoz and Eugenio Figueredo – are among those charged by authorities in the United States. Leoz is under house arrest in Paraguay and Figueredo is hoping to avoid being extradited to the United States by co-operating instead with a separate investigation in his native Uruguay.
Tellingly, Bedoya’s move came less than two weeks after the Colombian federation’s treasurer Diego Reina also resigned as the region became ever more embroiled in football’s worst ever corruption crisis. Of the 14 officials and sports marketing executives indicted in the United States on bribery, money laundering and wire fraud charges involving more than $150 million, eight were from South America.
Bedoya has always maintained he had no connection with the scandal but the Colombian attorney general’s office said they had opened their own investigation into him and were sharing information with US authorities.
“We have spoken with North American authorities and they have a great interest on their part in collaborating with Colombia, although we cannot give more information,” attorney general Luis Eduardo Montealegre told reporters.
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