LAUSANNE, Switzerland - FIFA has given three officials, who pleaded guilty to corruption in a US court, life bans from all football-related activities for corruption, the sport's governing body announced on Wednesday.
The adjudicatory chamber of the ethics committee banned former chairman of the North American Soccer League (NASL) Aaron Davidson, former CONCACAF official Costas Takkas and Colombian ex-FIFA match agent Miguel Trujillo for bribery and corruption.
Takkas was an advisor to former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb, who was banned from football by the FIFA ethics committee in 2015. The trio will all also have to pay fines of one million Swiss Francs ($1.03 million). American Davidson, a 47-year-old former sports marketing executive, pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy at a Brooklyn court in 2016.
In press release on Fifa.com, the governing body said of Takkas: "His guilty plea related, amongst others, to schemes in which he received bribe payments on behalf of the former CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb, in exchange for awarding contracts to companies for the media and marketing rights for football tournaments."
The press release also states that Davidson "offered bribes in exchange for securing contracts for the media and marketing rights of football tournaments". Trujillo "pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy and two counts of wire fraud conspiracy in connection with his participation in several schemes to bribe football officials" according to FIFA.
Forty-two people were indicted in the US after the corruption scandal and many pleaded guilty, although others, such as former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, managed to avoid extradition to the States. Last month, former Conmebol president Juan Angel Napout was sentenced to nine years in prison, shortly after former Brazilian FA boss Jose Maria Marin was handed a four-year sentence.