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New York (AFP) – Historical ex-directors of Conmebol, including the deceased Nicolás Leoz and Julio Grondona, received more than 32 million dollars in bribes until 2015, said one of the witnesses of the trial in New York against two former executives of the Fox group in the framework of the mega-scandal. of FIFAgate corruption.
The Argentine Alejandro Burzaco, one of the key witnesses and part of the corruption network that erupted the foundations of South American soccer, detailed the mechanisms used by the two former Fox executives and participants of the Argentine Full Play, the Mexican Carlos Martínez and the Argentine Hernán López, sitting on the bench.
Until the bribery scandal broke in 2015, the T&T company -created by Burzaco and the Brazilian Traffic-, in which the two defendants would have participated, had paid between “30 and 32 million dollars” in bribes to secure the lucrative market for television rights to soccer championships, said the witness in court.
“We had a joint venture called T&T Cayman” with López and Martínez, the two defendants who sit on the bench, together with the Argentine company Full Play, which since Tuesday have been on trial for corruption, bank fraud and money laundering.
The company paid executives of the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) bribes to secure lucrative long-term broadcasting rights to South American soccer tournaments such as the Copa Libertadores, as well as friendly and qualifying matches and the organization of sporting events.
The total amount committed amounted to “between 50 and 60 million dollars” but they did not manage to pay the total because the investigation in 2015 of the so-called FIFAgate frustrated it.
The main beneficiaries were the so-called “group of six”, made up of the most important members of the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol): the president, Nicolás Leoz (Paraguayan, who died in 2019), the vice president Eugenio Figueredo (Uruguayan), Secretary General Eduardo Deluca (Argentine), Treasurer Romar Osuna (Bolivian), and the presidents of the two most powerful South American soccer federations, Brazilian Ricardo Teixeira and Argentine Julio Grondona, who died in 2014.
“We bribed all these gentlemen and I participated in this scheme,” said Burzaco, who pleaded guilty and reached an agreement with the US court that included paying a fine of at least $21.6 million.
“Why these particular individuals?” prosecutor Kaitlin Farrell asked. “They were key members of Conmebol,” explained the witness presented by the prosecution.
“His level of influence was absolute” and specifically the late Grandona, who was seen as “a pope”, was one of the three most powerful within FIFA, he said.
For its part, the Full Play Group paid or promised to pay up to 90 million dollars.
Corrupt system… almost perfect
Since 1999, Conmebol has been negotiating the broadcasting rights of the clubs that participate in the competitions it organizes, such as the Copa Libertadores until then they were negotiated individually.
The objective was to sign contracts for the rights to broadcast the matches at “a price below the market”, “avoid competition”, “buy their loyalty” and “do future business with them,” Burzaco said.
T&T’s interest was to renew the contracts long before they expired in order to extend them and thus secure the business and drive out the competition, he explained.
Payments were made through service contracts that did not exist, explained Burzaco, who has not set foot in his native Argentina since May 25, 2015, although there were also items that were paid through the treasury. of Conmebol.
In the allegations, on the first day of the trial, the defense teams of López and Martínez fired all darts at Burzaco, who they blamed for the entire corrupt plot.
Full Play’s defense blamed executives of South American soccer associations who “systematically demanded payments.”
© 2023 AFP
