December 8 – Julio Rocha, one of the original un-magnificent Zurich Seven, who was responsible for overseeing FIFA’s development programme in Central America, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to his role in the US-led global football bribery investigation.
Rocha, a former president of the Nicaraguan Football Federation for three decades, was arrested in May last year and is accused of demanding and taking bribes of $150,000 in connection with the sale of marketing rights to World Cup qualifying games. He admitted charges of racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy, prosecutors said.
As part of his plea, Rocha, extradited in May, agreed to forfeit over $292,000, prosecutors added. He was one of the seven senior officials dramatically detained at a downtown Zurich hotel on the eve of the 2015 FIFA congress in what was the first wave of arrests of those caught up in the scandal
Rocha ran Nicaraguan football from 1998 to 2012 and was also president of the Central American Football Union from 2003 to 2007. He became a FIFA development officer based in Panama in 2013.
Prosecutors say he accepted over $150,000 in bribes to help the Miami unit of sports marketing firm Traffic Group obtain media and marketing rights for the Nicaraguan team’s qualifiers for multiple World Cup editions, including 2014 and 2018.
Prior to his plea, Rocha had been one of five defendants set to face trial in November 2017.
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