Lawyers in FIFA Corruption Case Discuss Possible Trial Date

Signaling the significant resources that have been put toward the United States Justice Department’s corruption case focused on international soccer, eight federal prosecutors and 15 defense lawyers appeared before a judge on Wednesday to discuss bringing the case to trial early next year.

In a packed courtroom, six defendants sat in the jury box, prompting Sam Rosenthal, a lawyer for Eduardo Li of Costa Rica, to gesture toward his client and joke to the judge, “I see the jury is empaneled, and it’s acceptable to the defense.”

Mr. Rosenthal was among those hesitant to support the February 2017 date that prosecutors had proposed to pick a jury, a timetable the government called aggressive but…