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FIFA Bans Three Ex-Soccer Officials for Life

Geneva(November 22, 2017): Three soccer officials who pleaded guilty in American courts to accepting bribes were banned for life by the FIFA ethics committee.

They include former FIFA audit committee member Richard Lai of Guam, who testified in federal court that the source of his bribe money was Olympic powerbroker Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah of Kuwait.“His guilty plea related, amongst others, to schemes in which he received bribes in exchange for his support in relation to the FIFA presidential elections and to gain control and influence within the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) and FIFA,” the soccer body said.Sheikh Ahmad referred his own case to the ethics committees of FIFA and the International Olympic Committee in April after Lai’s guilty plea was revealed. The Kuwaiti royal also withdrew from an election to retain his seat representing Asia on the FIFA Council.

The sheikh has denied wrongdoing and continues to work on Olympic duty, including chairing an IOC panel with a US$500-million budget to distribute grants, and leading the global group of national Olympic committees known as ANOC.Two more former soccer federation presidents, Rafael Esquivel of Venezuela and Julio Rocha of Nicaragua, were also banned for life. They were arrested in Zurich, Switzerland, in May 2015 in early morning raids on luxury hotels and later extradited to the United States.

Though the life bans were announced during the trial in Brooklyn of three other FIFA-connected officials from South America, the ethics panel investigations were separate and did not use new evidence being aired daily in court.

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