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The official logo for the 2022 Qatar World Cup is seen on a building in Doha, Qatar, September 3, 2019. /VCG
Prosecutors have revealed new details on Monday of alleged bribery aimed at influencing FIFA Executive Committee members to vote for Qatar to host the sport's biggest event.
The list of implicated individuals includes football officials and international media executives.
An indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn alleges that Nicolas Leoz, the former president of the South America's football governing body CONMEBOL, and former Brazil federation president Ricardo Teixeira received bribes to vote for Qatar at the 2010 FIFA Executive Committee meeting. And Jack Warner, the ex-leader of North American confederation CONCACAF, was given five million U.S. dollars in illegal payments.
Leoz, who died last August, avoided extradition, as have Teixeira and Warner so far. The document adds that Guatemalan federation's president, Rafael Salguero, was allegedly promised a bribe of one million dollars.
The FIFA World Cup Trophy at the African qualifiers draw ceremony in Cairo, Egypt, January 21, 2020. /VCG
The indictment, which was handed up by a grand jury last month, also charges Hernan Lopez and Carlos Martinez, two former executives from U.S. broadcasting conglomerate 21st Century Fox.
Lopez was CEO of Fox International Channels which is a subsidiary of 21st Century Fox, and Martinez was president of Fox International Channels and an executive of Fox Latin American Channel Inc. They are accused of joining with Full Play to pay millions of dollars in bribes to CONMEBOL executives in exchange for rights to the Copa Libertadores, South America's annual club championship.
Meanwhile, the ex-CEO of Spanish sports marketing firm Imagina Media Audiovisual Gerard Romy, and a sports marketing company from Uruguay called Full Play Group were also been charged. However, lawyers from both sides did not immediately respond to request for comment.
