FIFA ethics court bans arrested VPs Napout, Hawit

The latest dramatic twist in a longrunning saga began with a dawn raid on a luxury Zurich hotel where Swiss authorities arrested South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) president Juan Angel Napout, and Alfredo Hawit, head of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF).

The DoJ confirmed to the New York Times that Alfredo Hawit of Honduras and Juan Angel Napout of Paraguay were among the dozen arrested and charged.

Napout and Hawit are both in Switzerland where they are now fighting extradition to the United States, officials said.

His would-be successor, UEFA boss Michel Platini is implicated in the same probe and will appear later this month before a FIFA ethics court that could ban him from football for life, a fate which may also await Blatter.

Five current and former members of FIFA’s ruling executive committee were among 16 additional men charged with bribes and kickbacks in 92-count indictment unsealed on Thursday that took down an entire generation of football leaders in South America.

The last time Swiss authorities swooped in on the five-star Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich on the eve of a high-level Federation Internationale de Football Association meeting back on May 27, it shook soccer to its core.

The former CONCACAF general secretary and a former Federation Internationale de Football Association executive committee member pled guilty on November 25, 2013 to 10 criminal charges and agreed to cooperate with investigators.

It said Warner funded a 2005 purchase of a Miami condominium, held in the name of a member of his family, with money drawn from an account held in the name of a football facility that was “ostensibly affiliated with CONCACAF and was supported in part through Financial Assistance Programme funds”.

“We still have a number of avenues under investigation”, Lynch said. Among them was the president of Brazil’s football federation (CBF) Marco Polo Del Nero and former CBF president Ricardo Teixeira.

The bribes are linked to marketing rights for the Copa America – including the 2016 edition hosted in the USA – and World Cup qualifying matches.

In terms of clear separation of political and management functions, the FIFA Council (replacing the FIFA Executive Committee) will be responsible for setting the organisation’s overall strategic direction, while the general secretariat will oversee the operational and commercial actions required to effectively execute that strategy.

Meanwhile, FIFA’s ExCo has discussed expanding the World Cup from 32 teams to 40 and have ordered officials to come up with a feasibility study for the plan.

Hayatou said: “FIFA is not corrupt”.

The United States Justice Department was expected to unseal indictments in the case as early as this morning, according to several law enforcement officials who were briefed on the case and spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.