The United States has demanded the extradition of seven FIFA officials detained in May setting off what could become a prolonged legal battle over the handling of the major corruption case.
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Swiss authorities said that the US embassy in Bern had sent an extradition request the day before. The seven were detained in a dawn raid on a Zurich hotel on May 27 as a FIFA congress was about to start.
The seven officials are all from South and North America and have all indicated they will fight extradition. The seven held include Jeffrey Webb of the Cayman Islands and Eugenio Figueredo from Uruguay, who are both former FIFA vice presidents. Costa Rican Eduardo Li was supposed to join the FIFA executive committee in May.
There was also Brazilian football federation chief Jose Maria Marin, Nicaraguan Julio Rocha and Costas Takkas, a Briton who worked for the Cayman islands federation and Rafael Esquivel, president of the Venezuelan Football Federation. All are accused by US authorities of involvement in more than $150 million of bribes given for marketing deals for football tournaments in North and South America.
Extradition may have months to run. FIFA detainees have up to 28 days to respond to extradition request & can appeal to two higher courts
— Paul Kelso (@pkelso) July 2, 2015
The seven are among 14 people, including officials and sports marketing company executives, that US authorities have charged. Four others have already made deals with US prosecutors.
Zurich police will now question the seven officials again and they will have 14 days to respond to the extradition request, the federal justice office said. Experts said the battle over their extradition could take more than a year with hearings running alongside the election for a new FIFA president.
Indications that Sepp Blatter could stand again have been strongly opposed by other FIFA leaders. The FIFA executive is to meet in Zurich on July 20 to decide a date for the election, expected between this December and March 2016.
The 79-year-old Blatter has defended his own record, insisting in an interview with German magazine Bunte that no-one could accuse him of corruption. “I will answer: Do you understand this word at all which you use? “Anyone who accuses me of being corrupt must first of all prove it to me,” he insisted in the interview.
