Argentinian Alejandro Burzaco has announced that the former Chilean football leader has joined Uruguayan Sebastián Bauzá, they did not accept bribes to give a company television rights to regional tournaments.
After the outbreak of the so-called FIFAGate, a body that revealed numerous cases of corruption in international football, and which also hit Chile with Sergio Jadue as one of the actors involved new details continue to be learned.
This time in connection with the granting of broadcasting rights to the World Cups in Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 for the United States by the Fox Sports channel after the intervention of the then president of Argentine football Julio Grondona, as the said a witness.
They are Alejandro Burzaco, a key witness for the New York prosecutor’s office in the trial of his compatriot Hernán López and the Mexican Carlos Martínez, both executives of the Fox television channel and the Full Play company, accused of corruption, bank fraud and money laundering after the scandal triggered in 2015 .
Among his statements, he assured that the company T&T Cayman (25% owned by Torneo, which he chaired, and 75% owned by Fox Panamerican Sport) had paid between 30 and 32 million dollars in bribes -wine to the leaders of Conmebol until 2015, among them Grondona himself, in order to guarantee the television rights of regional tournaments, such as the Copa Libertadores and the Copa América.
Along the same lines, he said that “the only ones who did not receive bribes were the Chilean Harold Mayne-Nicholls and the Uruguayan Sebastián Bauzá ”.
The negotiations
As Burzaco explained, Hernán López, then head of Fox Channels, asked him to intercede with Grondona so that he would prefer Fox’s offer to keep the TV rights to the Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 World Cups and thus distribute them in the United States.
Grondona’s response was that if “Fox offered 400 million dollars” the contract would be for them . In this way, the channel managed to prevail over the ESPN offer which had broadcast all the World Cups in the United States since 1982.
Of course, it didn’t stop there. After returning to Buenos Aires, Grondona told Burzaco: “Listen Alejandro, I did this favor for you and Fox but this is the last time I’m doing it for free. From now on, they will have to pay a 10% commission “, he assured in court.
Throughout the interrogation, which will last four days and end on Monday, he pleaded guilty to corruption and reached an agreement with the New York prosecutor’s office with which he is now collaborating in exchange for the payment of a fine.
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Source: Latercera
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