KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: Enrique Sanz, the former general secretary of North American football’s governing body CONCACAF, has been banned from football for life after the latest catch-up judgment by the ethics committee of world governing body FIFA.

The 45-year-old, one of the men indicted in the long-running United States FIFAGate investigation, was judged guilty of negotiating bribes in competitions organised by FIFA, CONCACAF, the Caribbean Football Union and the South American confederation CONMEBOL between 2012 and 2015.

He had formerly worked for Traffic US which was centrally placed between all the governing bodies through its purchase and control of lucrative media rights.

The Colombian’s predecessor Chuck Blazer, who held the position from 1990 until 2011, had also been banned from football for life before his death in July 2017 while awaiting sentencing by a New York court on multiple counts of corruption and fraud to which he had pleaded guilty.

Sanz was also fined 100,000 Swiss francs (£81,160) by FIFA which stated: “The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee has found Mr Enrique Sanz guilty of bribery in violation of the Fifa code of ethics.”

The ethics committee is gradually working its way through the list of 40-plus individuals indicted in the FIFAGate saga. The US authorities are still involved in court action in Trinidad & Tobago to try to extradite former CONCACAF president and FIFA vice-president Jack Warner.

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