If suspicion has hovered for several years over the conditions for the award to Russia and Qatar of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, this is the first time that the justice of a country, in this case that of the United United claims that these votes were marred by irregularities.
In a new indictment released to the public on Monday, American investigators who are investigating the "Fifagate" accused several former leaders of the world body of being bribed in exchange for their vote in the award of the organization of the 2018 World Cups in Russia and 2022 in Qatar to the detriment of the United States and England.
According to the indictment issued by the Brooklyn federal prosecutor, which charges three new individuals as well as a company, Jack Warner, the former president of Concacaf, the football federation of North America, Central and Caribbean, received $ 5 million to vote for Russia. The latter was officially designated on December 2, 2010.
Also according to Brooklyn attorney Richard Donoghue, the payment was made through a complex network of front companies. Besides Warner, who at the time was vice-president of Fifa, the document also quotes Rafael Salguero, former president of the Guatemalan Football Federation and ex-member of the executive committee of Fifa.
45 people already charged
According to the indictment, the leader was promised a million dollars in exchange for his support for the Russian candidacy in the decisive vote. As part of the award of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the document also states that several leaders received envelopes to buy their votes.
He cites the former president of the Brazilian Football Federation (CBF) Ricardo Teixeira and the former president of the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) Nicolas Leoz, who died in August 2019. The services of the Brooklyn federal prosecutor give little information on the origin of these payments.
Some 45 natural and legal persons have been indicted to date by the American justice system in the so-called Fifagate case, which exposed a vast system of corruption, which mainly undermined the federations of the American continent. To date 26 defendants have pleaded guilty, as well as 4 natural persons. Two others, who had pleaded not guilty, were sentenced after trial.
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Jack Warner, now 77, is still in Trinidad and Tobago. His appeal against the United States' request for extradition has yet to be considered by the Privy Council, which is located in London but is the highest court under Trinitarian law.
Rafael Salguero was sentenced in December 2018 to three years' house arrest, equivalent to the one he had already served. This reduced sentence took into account his collaboration in the investigation carried out by the American justice. As for Ricardo Teixeira, he is in Brazil and therefore escapes, for the moment, from the American authorities.