By Andrew Warshaw
October 21 – American marketing executive Aaron Davidson has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in the US-led probe into football corruption and has had his trial set for April 24 next year.
Davidson registered his plea relating to charges of racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy in a Brooklyn federal court on Thursday, admitting paying bribes in exchange for lucrative media and marketing rights to international tournaments and matches including World Cup qualifiers, the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the CONCACAF Champions League.
The 45-year-old Florida businessman, who headed Traffic Sports USA, the Miami-based business of Brazilian sports marketing group Traffic, looks set to be one of the first of those caught up in the scandal to be sentenced and could face decades in prison. As part of his plea, he agreed to forfeit more than $500,000 dollars.
Davidson is one of 42 individuals and entities charged as part of the US investigation into a $150 million scheme of bribes and kickbacks that took place over 24 years. He is personally alleged to have agreed to direct $14.1 million in bribes to Jeffrey Webb, the former FIFA vice president and head of CONCACAF and the most high-profile FIFA figure implicated in the scandal.
“I knew that Mr. Webb was using his position of authority and trust to enrich himself personally, and I understood that he was doing so without the knowledge of the organizations he represented or was affiliated with,” Davidson said in court.
Some of the bribes, he said, were paid to land the media and marketing rights for the Caribbean Football Union’s 2018 and 2022 World Cup qualifier matches along with CONCACAF’s 2013 Gold Cup and the two seasons of its Champions League tournaments.
Davidson revealed he also assisted in 2013 in making a $10 million bribe payment to Webb so that a company that Traffic had an interest in could obtain rights to the Copa America Centenario, which was hosted by the United States in June. He also revealed he participated in the schemes with Jose Hawilla, the Brazilian founder of Traffic.
Like Webb and a raft of others who have been charged, Davidson’s downfall represents a stunning change of fortune for a once highly respected multi-lingual businessman who helped found the North American Soccer League.
His case has been somewhat underreported given the status of some of the other names on the charge sheet. But many feel his evidence could blow the lid on the extent of the scandal, in particular in the US, and prove even more embarrassing for CONCACAF given his dealings with the organisation’s top brass, most of whom are still in place, over more than a decade.
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