U.S. jury poised to weigh international soccer’s ugly side

NEW YORK — For seven weeks in a U.S. courtroom, federal jurors had been thrust right into a corruption scandal that had reached the very best ranges {of professional} soccer. They should now determine the fates of two former Fox executives accused of paying tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in bribes to achieve broadcasting rights to soccer’s greatest matches, together with the World Cup.

From the beginning, U.S. prosecutors in New York depicted the case as nothing lower than “the corruption of international soccer” and the way the executives — Hernan Lopez and Carlos Martinez — fed into it.

“This trial has given you a unique, inside look into a series of criminal conspiracies involving corruption at the very highest levels of organized soccer and the business of broadcasting the sport,” Assistant United States Attorney Eric Silverberg advised jurors, throughout the federal government’s closing arguments.

The choose is predicted at hand over the case to the jury on Monday to start sifting by the testimony of a parade of witnesses, lots of them known as by protection attorneys to refute the testimony of the federal government’s star witness — a former business affiliate of the 2 broadcast executives.

The fates of the 2 males will partly hinge on the credibility of that witness, Alejandro Burzaco, who has cooperated in earlier soccer corruption investigations since being arrested in 2015 in a associated bribery case.

Defense attorneys contend Burzaco had implicated Lopez and Martinez to keep away from jail.

William David Sarratt, who represents Lopez, stated Burzaco has “a credibility problem.”

“This case rises and falls on Burzaco,” added Steven McCool, who represents Martinez. “You can not convict one other human being primarily based on a liar.”

Over 11 days of testimony, Burzaco described a sport corrupted by thousands and thousands of {dollars} in soiled cash flowing by shell corporations and into the palms of South American soccer officers. The clandestine dealings assist land broadcasting rights for Latin America’s greatest annual match, the Copa Libertadores, and in the end helped Fox safe rights for the game’s most profitable competitors, the World Cup.

Burzaco, who headed an Argentinian advertising agency, has already pleaded responsible to racketeering conspiracy and different expenses. He testified in 2017 that each one three South Americans on the FIFA govt council took million-dollar bribes to help Qatar’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

Burzaco has but to be sentenced, and his critics contend that he was testifying on behalf the federal government to curry favour earlier than being sentenced.

Regardless of the end result, the case laid naked the persevering with woes of worldwide soccer’s governing federation, FIFA, as it really works to restore its battered picture — at the same time as most soccer followers have moved on from a scandal that exploded in 2015 when seven FIFA officers had been arrested at a Zurich, Switzerland, resort. Months later, on the identical resort, two of FIFA’s vice-presidents had been arrested on suspicion of bribery.

International soccer’s travails deepened quickly after.

At least two dozen individuals have already pleaded responsible. In addition, two individuals have been convicted in reference to a U.S.-led investigation into bribes and kickbacks. Four company entities have additionally pleaded responsible, and 4 different corporations had been charged however reached agreements with the federal government to keep away from prosecution.

Another firm, Full Play, a sports activities advertising firm primarily based in Uruguay, was additionally on trial together with Lopez and Martinez. The authorities accuses the corporate of collaborating within the bribing scheme.

Lopez is the previous chief govt of Fox International Channels and later operated a podcasting enterprise. Martinez headed the broadcaster’s Latin America affiliate.

Until 2019, the worldwide channels had been a subsidiary of what was then often called twenty first Century Fox, which splintered as a part of a sale to Disney.

Fox gained rights to broadcast the World Cup in 2018 and 2022 when it was part of the now-defunct firm.

From 1994 till 2014, rival ESPN broadcast the quadrennial tourney.

New York-based Fox Corp. just isn’t a defendant within the case. Fox has denied any function within the bribery scandal, and the corporate has stated that it has cooperated totally with authorities.

ESPN started airing soccer’s premier sporting occasion earlier than it caught on with U.S. audiences. FIFA beforehand had to purchase airtime to get the match broadcast within the nation.

As American curiosity in soccer grew, the competitors to air matches intensified.

ESPN paid $100 million for the rights to broadcast the sporting occasion in 2010 and 2014, and had sought to proceed airing the World Cup. But throughout two rounds of bidding, it didn’t win these rights.

Prosecutors allege that payoffs enabled Lopez and Martinez to get confidential info from high-ranking soccer officers, together with these at FIFA. The info helped Fox safe the U.S. English-language rights with a $425 million bid. Telemundo, a division of Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, gained U.S. Spanish-language rights for about $600 million.

December’s World Cup closing, through which Argentina prevailed over France, was the most-watched soccer match within the United States, based on tv viewers estimates.

During its deliberations the jury must think about strings of emails, monetary information and contracts — along with many hours of testimony by Burzaco, media executives, soccer officers and associates of Lopez and Martinez.

During the trial, there was little doubt that soiled cash had been exchanged. But legal professionals for the defendants, who acknowledged the bribes, pointed fingers at Burzaco.

“Mr. Burzaco is not on trial,” Kaitlin T. Farrell, one other federal prosecutor, reminded the jury.

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