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Former FIFA Official Faces U.S. Corruption Extradition


FILE: Now-former FIFA executive Jack Warner at a news conference upon his arrival at the airport in Port-of-Spain, in his native Trinidad and Tobago. Taken June 2, 2011.
FILE: Now-former FIFA executive Jack Warner at a news conference upon his arrival at the airport in Port-of-Spain, in his native Trinidad and Tobago. Taken June 2, 2011.

Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner can be extradited from his homeland of Trinidad to the United States to face corruption charges, a London court said on Thursday.

In 2020 a U.S. Department of Justice indictment said then-FIFA vice-president Warner was paid $5 million through various shell companies to vote for Russia to host the 2018 World Cup.

Suspicion and rumors for years surrounded the 2010 votes by FIFA's executive to hand the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 edition to Qatar.

His role as president of CONCACAF, which organizes football in North and Central America and the Caribbean, gave him enormous influence as a powerbroker for former FIFA chief Sepp Blatter.

A former member of the FIFA Executive Committee and former CONCACAF president Warner was suspended by FIFA in 2011 and in 2015, charged with wire fraud, racketeering and money-laundering by the U.S.

FIFA banned him from all football-related activity for life in 2015. The 79-year-old has always denied any wrongdoing.

Warner's lawyers argued that his extradition was unlawful but London's Privy Council, the highest court of appeal for many Commonwealth countries, unanimously dismissed his appeal.

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