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Selection of jurors is scheduled to begin
before U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen in Brooklyn. On trial
Manuel Burga, former president of Peru's soccer federation; José
Maria Marin, the former president of Brazil's soccer federation;
and Juan Ángel Napout, formerly president of the South American
soccer governing body CONMEBOL and of Paraguay's soccer
federation.
U.S. prosecutors have accused the three of taking bribes and
kickbacks in connection with the sale of media and marketing
rights to Copa America and Copa Libertadores tournaments,
international competitions organized by CONMEBOL.
The trial is part of a sweeping criminal probe in which U.S.
prosecutors have charged 42 people and entities. Prosecutors
have described a widespread culture of corruption around the
awarding of media and marketing rights to soccer games
throughout the world. Burga, Marin and Napout are the first of
the people charged to go to trial.
Twenty-four people have pleaded guilty, most of them since the
probe was announced in May 2015, though the first pleas came in
2013. The charges against one of those people, U.S. soccer
official Charles Blazer, were voided after his death in July.
"After waiting two years, Mr. Napout looks forward to his day in
court," Napout's lawyer, Silvia Pinera-Vazquez, said on Friday.
Charles Stillman, a lawyer for Marin, and Bruce Udolf, a lawyer
for Burga, declined to comment.
Among the defendants who have pleaded guilty in the case are
Jeffrey Webb, a former FIFA vice president and president of
CONCACAF, the governing body for soccer in North America,
Central America and the Caribbean; and José Hawilla, accused of
paying bribes to secure contracts for his sports marketing
company, Traffic Group.
In October, Costas Takkas, described by prosecutors as Webb's
attache, was sentenced to 15 months in prison and Hector
Trujillo, a former secretary general of the Guatemalan soccer
federation, was sentenced to eight months.
Other defendants have not been extradited to the United States.
Sepp Blatter, who served as FIFA's president from 1998 until he
was suspended in late 2015, was not charged in the case.
Authorities in Switzerland, where FIFA is based, said in October
that they were investigating potential bribery around media
rights for the 2026 and 2030 World Cups.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Noeleen
Walder and Tom Brown)
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