Six years after the United States began investigating international soccer officials for corruption, and two years after dozens of them were indicted, three aging South American men settled into their seats in an overflowing, wood-paneled courtroom in Brooklyn on Monday for the start of the FIFA trial.
The three defendants on trial, facing charges of racketeering conspiracy as well as wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy, were Manuel Burga of Peru, Juan Ángel Napout of Paraguay and José Maria Marin of Brazil. Each man is a former president of his country’s soccer association, and the most serious charges that each faces carry up to 20 years in prison.