BERN: Alfredo Hawit, the third president of CONCACAF to fall foul of United States corruption investigators, has agreed to his extradition from Switzerland writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

The Honduran, a FIFA vice-president through his role at the head of the central and north American confederation, had been arrested in Zurich on December 3.

He and the Paraguayan head of South American federation CONMEBOL were both detained in an early-morning raid at the Baur au Lac hotel at the request of the US Department of Justice.

A statement from the Swiss justice department, confirming Hawit’s extradition agreement, said the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York had accused him of “accepting bribes totalling millions of dollars in connection with the sale to various sports marketing firms of marketing rights to football tournaments in Latin America.”

Hawit had resisted the extradition application until after its formal submission by the US authorities.

The FIFAGate scandal burst into the open last May 27 when seven senior FIFA directors and marketing officials were detained at the Baur au Lac, two days before the congress at which now-disgraced president Sepp Blatter was re-elected for a fifth term in office.

The seven included the then CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb who is currently on house arrest in the US after pleading guilty to four charges of corruption arising out of the $200m corruption case operation.

Webb’s predecessor, Jack Warner, has also been indicted and is contesting an extradition application in Trinidad and Tobago.

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