By Paul Nicholson
October 1 – Brazilian Jose Maria Marin (pictured) and Costa Rican Eduardo Li are the fifth and sixth of the seven FIFA executives arrested in the dawn raids in Switzerland in May to have the next stages of their extradition processes to the US unveiled.
Reports are emerging in Brazil that former Brazilian federation president Marin has negotiated a 40 million Brazilian Reals ($10 million) payment as part of his extradition terms that will see him transferred to the US but confined under bail conditions to his Trump Tower Manhattan apartment.
Marin will likely be confined to a 20 mile radius of the Brooklyn court where his case will be heard. He is charged with soliciting and receiving bribery payments for marketing and television rights for the Copa do Brazil and Copa America tournaments.
The Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FoJ) has also approved the extradition to the US of Costa-Rican football federation president Li – who arrested just before he was to attend his first meetings as a member of FIFA’s executive committee. Li has 30 days to appeal to the Swiss Federal Criminal Court against the FoJ’s ruling.
Li is accused of taking bribes in connection with the sale of marketing rights for World Cup 2018 qualifiers
That now just leaves the fate of Briton Costas Takkas to be decided. Takkas is described as an aide to former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb but had no official capacity within FIFA or its federations. Of those arrested he seems the least likely to have information that will lead US investigators to their desired targets. He is accused of facilitating the money from Traffic to Webb via US-based companies.
Webb was the first to agree to extradition to the US and is next due in court in Brooklyn on October 9. Julio Rocha, former President of the Nicaraguan Football Federation agreed to be extradited to Nicaragua in August.
Rafael Esquivel, former president of the Venezuelan Football Federation, and former FIFA vice-president Uruguayan Eugenio Figueredo, like Li, both have 30 days to appeal against the FoJ’s decision to agree their extradition to the US.
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