How the FBI won ‘the World Cup of fraud’ as Fifa scandal arrives in court

The trial of three former high-ranking South American football figures starts this week in New York but US authorities have already secured 23 guilty pleas

On Monday in a spartan Brooklyn courtroom, three former South American football chiefs accused of taking bribes and corruption will finally reach criminal trial, two and a half years on from the arrests in Zurich of Fifa barons that led to the toppling of Sepp Blatter’s regime. The three denying charges that include racketeering and “multiple acts involving bribery” over the sale of Copa América and other television rights are José Maria Marin, former president of the Brazil football association (CBF); Juan Ángel Napout, a Paraguayan who used to be president of the South America football confederation (Conmebol); and Manuel Burga, president of the Peru FA for 12 years and a member of Fifa’s money-dispensing development committee.

Related: Sepp Blatter after the fall: ‘Why the hell should I bear all the blame?’

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from The Guardian http://ift.tt/2y8enIF