RIO DE JANEIRO/ZURICH: Marco Polo del Nero – an effective flight from United States justice – is still contesting the life ban from football imposed by the ethics committee of world federation FIFA writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

Del Nero, former member of the FIFA executive committee and president of the Brazilian confederation, has spent seven hours in a video-link hearing with the federation’s appeal comittee.

The video link was necessary for Del Nero because he knows he risks detention and extradition to the US to face corruption charges in the five-year investigation into bribery concerning international football rights.

Del Nero was banned for life from football and fined CHF1m in April 2017 on the basis of evidence registered in the US courts after having fled Zurich in May 2015 when his CBF predecessor, Jose Maria Marin, was among seven senior executives arrested in Switzerland on US warrants.

On Thursday, Del Nero’s lawyers sat in Zurich while he pleaded his case electronically. He claimed the evidence against him was invalid because it had been obtained at second hand.

Del Nero, if his appeal fails, can still contest the ban before the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.

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