Former Conmebol officials received 32 million in bribes, says witness

Argentine Alejandro Burzaco guaranteed that he paid around US$ 32 million (R$ 167 million) in bribes to the main executives of Conmebol until 2015. He was one of the witnesses in the trial in New York of two former leaders, in the context of the bribes in FIFA.

Until the bribery scandal known as FIFAgate broke out in 2015, the T&T company – created by Burzaco and the Brazilian Traffic -, in which the two defendants, Argentine Hernán López and Mexican Carlos Martínez, would have paid between “30 and 32 million dollars” in kickbacks to secure the lucrative market for television rights to football championships, the whistleblower said in court.

“We had a joint venture called T&T Cayman” with Hernán López and Carlos Martínez, through which they paid bribes to officials of the Confederation of South American Football (Conmebol) to secure lucrative long-term broadcast rights for South American football tournaments such as the Copa Libertadores, as well as friendly and qualifying matches and the organization of sporting events.

The total amount amounted to “between 50 and 60 million” dollars, but they were unable to pay the committed amounts because the investigation in 2015 of the so-called FIFAgate frustrated him.

The main beneficiaries were the so-called “group of six”, formed by the most important members of the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol): the president, Nicolás Leoz (Paraguayan, died in 2019), the vice-president Eugenio Figueredo (Uruguayan) , general secretary Eduardo Deluca (Argentine), treasurer Romar Osuna (Bolivian) and the presidents of the two most powerful South American football federations, Brazilian Ricardo Teixeira and Argentine Julio Grondona, who died in 2014.

“We bribed all these gentlemen and I was part of that scheme,” said Burzaco, who pleaded guilty and reached a settlement with the US court that included paying a fine of at least $21.6 million.

“Why these particular individuals?” asked prosecutor Kaitlin Farrell. “They were key members of Conmebol,” explained the witness presented by the prosecution.
Since 1999, Conmebol has been negotiating the broadcasting rights of the clubs that until then negotiated them individually.

The aim was to sign broadcast rights contracts for matches “at a below market price”, “avoid competition”, “buy their loyalty” and “do future business with them”, said Burzaco.

T&T’s interest was to renew the contracts long before they expired to secure the deal, he explained.

Payments were made through service contracts that did not exist, explained Burzaco, who has not been back to his native Argentina since May 25, 2015, although there were also items that were paid through Conmebol’s treasury. .