The ugly side of the beautiful game

Swiss announce extraditions to US and Uruguay in soccer corruption probe

Switzerland extradited a former Costa Rican soccer boss to the United States on Friday and approved the handover of a former South American federation chief to Uruguay in the latest judicial steps in the corruption scandal that has engulfed the sport.

Costa Rican Eduardo Li was sent to the United States, accompanied by two US police officers, after withdrawing his appeal against extradition, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) said.

It said it would send Eugenio Figueredo, a former head of South America's CONMEBOL soccer body and former vice-president of world federation FIFA, to Uruguay, where he is accused of abusing his office for personal gain.

Both men were arrested on May 27 in Zurich as part of investigations led by the United States and Switzerland that span dozens of countries and centre on alleged corruption at the highest levels of the world's most popular sport.

Figueredo had appealed against the FOJ's Sept. 17 ruling to extradite him to the United States, but agreed on Nov. 9, to be sent to Uruguay, the justice office said.

It said it had decided to give priority to the Uruguayan extradition request because "Figueredo could be tried in Uruguay for all of the offences of which he is accused".

"In the USA, the prosecution would cover only some of the charges. For this reason, the FOJ yesterday decided to give priority to Figueredo's extradition to Uruguay."

The FOJ gave no details on the timing of the handover.

CONMEBOL, an influential grouping that includes traditional soccer powers such as Brazil and Argentina, is heavily embroiled in the corruption probe led by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Of 14 soccer officials and sports marketing executives indicted in the United States in May on bribery, money laundering and wire fraud charges involving more than $150 million in payments, eight were from South America.

Soccer bosses from across South and Central America were among 16 other people charged on Dec. 3 with multi-million-dollar bribery schemes for marketing and broadcast rights.