In federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday, a Colombian citizen working in Florida as a football consultant and agent licensed by FIFA, Miguel Trujillo, the 42nd defendant in the U.S.’ continuing FIFA case, "pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy." He admitted to "paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes" to world football officials related to negotiations for media and marketing contracts and int'l friendly matches. Trujillo, 65, "also pleaded guilty to having filed a false tax return." He "agreed to forfeit" $495,000 to the government (N.Y. TIMES, 3/8).
SUSPENSION: The Zimbabwe FA (ZIFA) has "provisionally suspended executive committee member Edzai Kasinauyo over allegations he was involved in an attempt to fix an African Nations Cup qualifier scheduled for later this month." ZIFA said in a statement that the 40-year-old, who played for Zimbabwe at the Nations Cup finals in '06, is being investigated "over the claims involving the country's Group L encounter" away to Swaziland on March 25. ZIFA said, "Kasinauyo has been fingered in the match-fixing scam and investigations are going on" (REUTERS, 3/9).
FOOTBALL BRIEFS ...
The investigation into the German 2006 World Cup bid is "dragging in more big names" with former FIFA General Secretary Urs Linsi the latest to be tied to the irregularities. Linsi is mentioned 58 times in the Freshfields report to the German Football Federation on Friday, where "it is clear he both knew about the payments and played a central role" in the movement of the 10M Swiss francs payment from the Germans that "ended up in Qatar in an account of a company owned by Mohammed Bin Hammam" (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 3/8).
Brasileiro side Santos "will have to present the offers it received" for Neymar within seven days "following an order by a São Paulo court on Tuesday." Santos has to "meet the demand from DIS, the business that owned 40% of the the player during his tenure with the club." DIS is accusing Neymar and his father of not declaring "the true value" of the move to Barcelona (AS, 3/9).
Spanish second division side Alcorcón "is crossing borders." New club President Ignacio Legido was in China "to promote the club in the growing market." He said, "Thanks to our sponsor, law firm BDO, we have been able to make a trip this week and have meetings with Chinese businesses interested in the world of football" (AS, 3/9).
