ZURICH: Life bans from football have been imposed on Sergio Jadue and Luis Bedoya, former presidents of the football federations of Chile and Colombia, respectively writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

The punishments were imposed by the the FIFA ethics committee, headed by Hans‑Joachim Eckert, after the two men admitted to criminal corruption charges levelled by the United States authorities in the FIFAGate investigation.

Both men were former vice-president of South American confederation CONMEBOL while Bedoya had served on the world federation’s executive committee.

A statement from the ethics committee said investigations against Jadue and Bedoya had been opened last December 4 by Dr Cornel Borbély, chairman of the investigatory chamber.

This followed an announcement from the US Department of Justice the previous day that both men had pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy.

The ethics judgment said: “Their guilty pleas related to two schemes by means of which they asked for and received bribes from sports marketing companies in relation to the awarding of marketing rights for the CONMEBOL Copa Libertadores tournament as well as the CONMEBOL/CONCACAF Copa América Centenario and CONMEBOL Copa América tournament.

“The adjudicatory chamber found Mr Jadue and Mr Bedoya guilty of violating arts 13 (General rules of conduct), 15 (Loyalty), 18 (Duty of disclosure, cooperation and reporting), 19 (Conflicts of interest) and 21 (Bribery and corruption) of the FIFA Code of Ethics.”

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