|
 CONMEBOL said its executive committee had approved a "comprehensive
review of the management model and the organizational structure".
Ernst & Young had been called in to implement the reforms and the
audit firm started work at the confederation's headquarters in
Asuncion, Paraguay on Monday.
CONMEBOL, an influential grouping that includes traditional soccer
powers like Brazil and Argentina, is heavily embroiled in the
corruption probe led by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI).
Of 14 soccer officials and sports marketing executives indicted in
the United States in May on bribery, money laundering and wire fraud
charges involving more than $150 million in payments, eight were
from South America.
They included two former CONMEBOL presidents, Eugenio Figueredo and
Nicolas Leoz, plus the Venezuelan federation president Rafael
Esquivel, the former head of the Brazilian confederation and three
Argentine and one Brazilian executives.
Figueredo and Esquivel, still being held in a Swiss prison pending
extradition proceedings after they were arrested in Zurich on the
eve of a FIFA Congress, were both CONMEBOL executive committee
members at the time.
[to top of second column] |
The core charges in the case focus on the alleged payment of bribes
to secure commercial and broadcasting contracts for major
tournaments in the Americas.
In June, Paraguay's Congress approved a measure withdrawing immunity
from the CONMEBOL's headquarters. The building, on a 40-hectare site
near Asuncion's airport, had enjoyed immunity from search since it
was opened in 1997.
(Writing by Brian Homewood in Berne; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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