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Two soccer bosses convicted

By Daily Sports on December 23, 2017

A US jury convicted two South American ex-soccer bosses of corruption on Friday but will return after Christmas to deliberate on the fate of a third defendant in the Fifa trial in New York.

The panel returned guilty verdicts against Jose Maria Marin, former head of Brazil's Football Confederation and Juan Angel Napout, former head of Paraguayan football, on the sixth day of deliberations following an extraordinary seven-week trial.

Marin, 85, was convicted on six of seven counts, and Napout, 59, on three out of five, in connection with bestowing television and marketing rights to soccer matches.

But the jury said they had not yet reached consensus on former Peru boss Manuel Burga, who faces one count of racketeering conspiracy. They will return to resume deliberations on Tuesday, after the Christmas holiday.

The trial in a Brooklyn federal court exposed systemic criminal activity at the heart of the world's most popular sport, two and a half years after the United States unveiled the largest graft scandal in the history of world soccer.

Government prosecutors indicted 42 officials and marketing executives, and the sports company Traffic detailed 92 alleged crimes to the tune of more than $200 million, but so far only these three defendants have faced trial. © AFP

•Photo shows Jose Maria Marin.

Source Daily Sports

Posted December 23, 2017