Fox Sports "came under scrutiny" yesterday when a witness in the ongoing FIFA corruption trial testified that the net "paid bribes to get into the lucrative South American soccer market," according to Andrew Keshner of the N.Y. DAILY NEWS. Argentinian exec Alejandro Burzaco, who made the revelations, has "already pleaded guilty to doling out bribes." He "identified Fox Sports as one of the media outlets that greased palms." The other companies he mentioned "are in South America and Spain." Burzaco formerly led Torneos y Competencias, a company that "gained access to the rights for various tournaments." Fox Pan American Sports was in on a "joint venture with Torneos y Competencias." Fox "hasn't been charged in the case, but Torneos y Competencias has entered a deferred prosecution agreement." Burzaco is "cooperating with prosecutors." Fox Sports in a statement said that "any suggestion it knew or approved of bribes was 'emphatically false.'" The company added it “had no operational control of the entity which Burzaco ran." The net's statement said the entity run by Burzaco was a "subsidiary of Fox Pan American Sports, which in 2008, at the time of the contract in question, was majority owned by a private equity firm and under their operational and management control" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 11/15).
ALL ABOUT RIGHTS: Burzaco testified that the alleged bribes were "intended to secure -- for Fox and an Argentine partner -- the lucrative television rights to two FIFA tournaments in South America, the Copa Sudamericana and the Copa Libertadores." Burzaco added that Fox' "'main interest' was expanding Fox Sports’ reach throughout the Americas, in the form of TV rights to events with increasing popularity." Burzaco said that T&T, a joint venture between Traffic Sports and Torneos y Competencias, "paid hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes to more than a half dozen top CONMEBOL officials every year," from '06 through '15. The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Rebecca O'Brien notes Fox "hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing in the case, and no Fox executives were charged" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/15). Burzaco said that "other media businesses, including Televisa, Media Pro, TV Globo, Full Play Argentina, and Traffic had all paid bribes" for soccer rights as well. Globo in a statement "vehemently denied making bribes and said it was willing to cooperate with U.S. authorities" (AP, 11/14).
