U.S. jury poised to weigh international soccer’s ugly side

NEW YORK — For seven weeks, federal jurors in a US courtroom were thrown into a corruption scandal that had reached the highest levels of professional football. They must now decide the fate of two former Fox executives who are accused of paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to obtain broadcasting rights to some of football’s biggest matches, including the World Cup.

From the start, US prosecutors in New York portrayed the case as nothing short of “the corruption of international football” and how the executives – Hernan Lopez and Carlos Martinez – threw themselves into it.

“This trial has given you a unique insight into a series of criminal conspiracies involving corruption at the highest levels of organized football and the business of broadcasting the sport,” US Assistant Attorney Eric Silverberg told jurors during the administration’s closing arguments .

The judge is expected to turn the case over to the jury on Monday to begin sifting through testimonies from a parade of witnesses, many of whom have been called by defense attorneys to hear the testimony of the government’s key witness – a former business partner of the both – to refute broadcasters.

The fate of the two men will depend in part on the credibility of witness Alejandro Burzaco, who has assisted in previous investigations into football corruption since his arrest in 2015 in a similar bribery case.

Defense attorneys claim Burzaco implicated Lopez and Martinez to avoid jail.

William David Sarratt, representing Lopez, said Burzaco had “a credibility problem”.

“This case stands and falls with Burzaco,” added Steven McCool, representing Martinez. “You can’t judge another person because of a liar.”

For over 11 days, Burzaco described a sport corrupted by millions of dollars in dirty money flowing through shell companies and into the hands of South American football officials. The secret deals help secure broadcast rights to Latin America’s biggest annual tournament, the Copa Libertadores, and ultimately helped Fox secure rights to the sport’s most lucrative competition, the World Cup.

Burzaco, who ran an Argentine marketing firm, has already pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and other charges. He testified in 2017 that all three South Americans on the FIFA Executive Board accepted millions of dollars in bribes to support Qatar’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

Burzaco has yet to be sentenced, and his critics claim he testified on behalf of the government to flatter himself before his sentencing.

Regardless of the outcome, the case has exposed the ongoing problems of international football’s governing body FIFA, which is working to repair its tarnished image – even as most football fans have emerged from a scandal that exploded in 2015 when seven FIFA officials were arrested in one Hotel in Zurich, Switzerland. Months later, two FIFA vice-presidents were arrested at the same hotel on suspicion of bribery.

International football’s troubles deepened soon after.

At least two dozen people have already pleaded guilty. In addition, two people were convicted of paying bribes and kickbacks in connection with a US-led investigation. Four companies have also pleaded guilty and four other companies have been charged but have made arrangements with the government to avoid prosecution.

Another company, Full Play, a sports marketing company based in Uruguay, was also on trial along with Lopez and Martinez. The government accuses the company of having participated in the bribery.

Lopez is the former CEO of Fox International Channels and later ran a podcasting company. Martinez ran the network’s Latin American affiliate.

Until 2019, the international broadcaster was a subsidiary of what was then 21st Century Fox, which splintered in the wake of a sale to Disney.

Fox won the rights to broadcast the World Cup in 2018 and 2022 when it was part of the now-defunct company.

From 1994 to 2014, rival ESPN broadcast the tournament, which takes place every four years.

New York-based Fox Corp. is not a defendant in this case. Fox has denied any role in the bribery scandal and the company has said it has fully cooperated with authorities.

ESPN began broadcasting football’s premier sporting event before it caught on with US audiences. FIFA previously had to buy airtime to be able to broadcast the tournament in the country.

As American interest in football increased, competition to broadcast games intensified.

ESPN paid $100 million for the rights to broadcast the sporting event in 2010 and 2014 and had attempted to continue broadcasting the World Cup. But in two rounds of bidding, it failed to win those rights.

Prosecutors allege that through payouts, Lopez and Martinez obtained confidential information from senior football officials, including those at FIFA. The information helped Fox secure the US English-language rights with a $425 million bid. Telemundo, a division of Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, won US Spanish-language rights for approximately $600 million.

December’s World Cup final, in which Argentina beat France, was the most-watched soccer match in the United States by television viewers’ estimates.

During their deliberations, the jury must consider a range of emails, financial documents and contracts – in addition to many hours of testimony from Burzaco, media executives, football officials and Lopez and Martinez associates.

During the trial there was little doubt that dirty money had been exchanged. But the defendants’ lawyers, who acknowledged the bribes, pointed the finger at Burzaco.

“Mr. Burzaco is not on trial,” Kaitlin T. Farrell, another federal prosecutor, reminded the jury.