NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. government’s star witness in a big-money bribery case engulfing the world of soccer began testifying Wednesday at the trial of two former Fox executives and a marketing company accused of paying millions of dollars to rig the bidding process for broadcasting rights to two of the sport’s biggest competitions.
The trial in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn is the latest development in a tangled corruption scandal that dates back nearly a decade and has ensnared more than three dozen executives and associates in the world’s most popular sport.
The witness, Alejandro Burzaco, alleges that he and former Fox executives Hernan Lopez and Carlos Martinez conspired to bribe South American soccer officials for the TV rights to the Southern Hemisphere’s biggest annual tournament and help land broadcasting rights to the sport’s most lucrative competition, the World Cup.