By Paul Nicholson
July 13 – The Swiss Federal Office of Justice last Friday said that one of the seven FIFA officials arrested in the dawn swoop on the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich on May 27, had agreed to extradition to the United States.
Over the weekend reports emerged that the executive who had agreed to extradition was CONCACAF president and FIFA executive vice president Jeffrey Webb, though the Swiss said that the person had requested not to be named at the moment.
All seven of the arrested were given a first hearing conducted by the Zurich Cantonal Police immediately after their arrest and all contested extradition to the US. The Swiss then asked the US to submit a formal extradition request which was received on July 1. A second hearing was held July 9 when one, Webb according to reports, agreed to extradition. The other six are all believed to have contested extradition.
The extradition process will now see Webb collected in Switzerland by a US police escort and taken to the US within 10 days.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York has accused Webb of accepting bribes in connection with the sale of marketing rights to various sports marketing firms, including Traffic which until last week represented CONCACAF. In particular the rights in relate to qualifying matches for the World Cup, CFU and CONCACAF tournaments and the upcoming Copa America Centenario to be played in the US next year.
The bribes are said to have amounted to millions of dollars though the full detail and money trail has yet to be outlined.
Webb has only been president of CONCACAF since 2012, being re-elected unopposed for a four year term earlier this year.
He has been linked going back to 2005 with disgraced former CONCACAF president Jack Warner through his company formation work at Fidelity Bank in the Cayman Islands. This company handled the Caribbean World Cup TV rights income but it is not clear that Webb benefitted directly from this money and if so, by how much. There is no indication as yet that Webb benefitted from further business relationships with Warner, the man he replaced in what was the heralding of a new era of transparency and integrity at CONCACAF.
Last week FIFA president Sepp Blatter expressed his surprise at the allegations surround Webb. It was a surprise and disappointment that was felt around the football world, not least within his own confederation which he had led to becoming a rapidly emerging force on the world football stage, both politically and in terms of team performances. Webb was reckoned to be a possible replacement for Blatter at FIFA.
Webb was hit early last week by another arrest warrant, this time issued by the Cayman Island authorities relating to a healthcare fraud case on his home island.
Charges against him include six counts of money laundering in relation to around $169,000 over an 18-month period between December 2010 and June 2012, when he was chair of the CHSA board. He is also charged with conflict of interest, failing to disclose a pecuniary interest, breach of trust and fraud.
The charges are serious but the sums of money seem small in comparison to the FIFA corruption accusations. It remains to be seen whether these charges can be substantiated or whether they are strong enough to make it to court in Cayman.
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