FIFA life ban for Costa Rican official Li in bribery case

Posted April 21, 2017 7:00 am

The Associated Press

ZURICH (AP) - FIFA's ethics committee has banned for life the former Costa Rica soccer federation president Eduardo Li for taking bribes.

The decision was announced on Friday.

Li already made guilty pleas in Brooklyn federal court last October to charges of racketeering and wire fraud conspiracies.

A U.S. Department of Justice indictment said Li took six-figure bribes from marketing agency Traffic USA linked to commercial rights for World Cup qualifying matches.

Li was arrested at the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich in an early morning raid in May 2015. Two days later, he was formally due to join the FIFA executive committee.

He spent several months detained in Switzerland before being extradited to the United States.

More than 40 people and marketing agencies have been indicted or pleaded guilty in the American investigation of corruption linked to FIFA.

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