By Andrew Warshaw
October 16 – Julio Rocha – another of the un-magnificent Zurich Seven – will be extradited to the United States and not to his native Nicaragua as he had hoped, Switzerland’s Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) has announced.
Rocha, a former president of the Nicaraguan Football Federation for three decades, was arrested in May along with six other FIFA officials as part of the US corruption probe and is accused of demanding and taking bribes of $150,000 in connection with the sale of marketing rights to World Cup qualifying games.
Rocha, who was working for FIFA in charge of development in Mexico and Central America, has 30 days to appeal the extradition approval, the FOJ said, adding that it gave priority to the US request over a similar one from Nicaragua.
According to a statement from the FOJ: “Rocha is accused of having demanded and accepted for himself and another football functionary bribes totalling $150,000 in the sale of marketing rights from FENIFUT to a US sports marketing company for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.”
The FOJ ruled that Rocha had “massively influenced the competition by accepting bribes for awarding sports marketing contracts and distorted the market for media rights related to the World Cup qualifiers. Other sports marketing companies have been discriminated against.
“Moreover, the affected football association has been prevented from negotiating more favourable marketing contracts. In Switzerland, this behaviour would constitute an offence concerning unfair competition.”
Nicaragua had asked the Swiss to give them priority but the US authorities won the battle on the grounds that they were “undertaking long-standing and extensive criminal proceedings against numerous individuals who are already in the United States or to be delivered to that state.”
Rocha had agreed to his extradition to Nicaragua, but the Swiss overturned this request in favour of sending him to the US.
That means the Swiss authorities have now approved extradition demands for Eugenio Figueredo, ex-president of CONMEBOL, former FIFA exco member Eduardo Li (Costa Rica), Rafael Esquivel (Venezuela) and Costas Takkas. Former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb had already accepted extradition and is now on bail in the US.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1735216508labto1735216508ofdlr1735216508owedi1735216508sni@w1735216508ahsra1735216508w.wer1735216508dna1735216508